Record number of students start at NEWI

17 September 2007

Professor Michael Scott addressed a record number of new students this morning highlighting NEWI’s excellent student support and high employability figures as key reasons for choosing NEWI. NEWI welcomed nearly 1500 first year students to the Institute this morning (Monday 17th September) and a further 200 students will join them from across Europe next week.

The students met with their course lecturers before being welcomed by the Principal and meeting the President and Vice-President of the Students’ Guild to find out what had been organised for Freshers’ Week. The NEWI William Aston Hall and Nick Whitehead Theatre were full to capacity, with the new video link system being used so that students in the Nick Whitehead Theatre could view the talks.

In his welcoming speech Professor Michael Scott, Principal and Chief Executive of NEWI talked about the students joining the Institute at an exciting time. “This is a very exciting time for you to become members of NEWI” he said “the Institute has changed significantly since it was founded in 1887 and is now progressing towards becoming a university in its own right and has recently been praised for two areas that we are particularly proud of at this Institute; our high level of student support and our high percentage of graduates gaining meaningful employment within six months of graduating, which is one of the best in the UK. There has been a lot of investment in NEWI over the last few years and currently a new performance space is being developed for the theatre and performance degree.”

Professor Michael Scott also talked about NEWI’s courses and research “we have some great course development happening at NEWI and significant research being undertaken in all areas. I hope you enjoy the facilities at NEWI, student life and your courses. I’m looking forward to congratulating you all on this stage when you have completed your degrees.”

The students have come from all over the world to study at NEWI. Many students are staying in the student accommodation on campus as well as student accommodation within Wrexham and many students are local students travelling from the counties of Wrexham, Cheshire, Shropshire, Merseyside, Flintshire, Powys, Conwy and Denbighshire.

The new students will begin enrolling on their courses this week and take part in the organised activities that form part of Freshers’ Week. Returning students will start back at NEWI next week, to give the new students chance to settle in.