Welcome Guide for Set 150

Please ensure you bring the following with you:

• Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS)
• Identification documents
• Student Loan entitlement letter – if you haven’t already provided a copy to the finance department
• A notepad and pen or a device for making notes
• Your lunch

Welcome Week is a week of events, activities and sessions designed to help you meet people, make friends and find out about everything Norland has to offer. During Welcome Week, you will receive a welcome pack, which will include everything you need to start your student journey at Norland. You will receive your student ID badge and library card, email account, course handbook and academic timetable. You will also have an IT introduction, which will go through how to use our online study and resource systems: Moodle and SharePoint.

During Welcome Week, you will be assigned to a tutor group and you will also have the chance to meet your personal tutor. Welcome Week sessions are geared towards helping you settle into student life before teaching starts. You will meet the student support team, who will give an overview of the services and support they provide. A session will be held on personal safety to ensure that you have a safe and happy time at Norland. The marketing team will provide advice and support for appropriate social media use and outline future PR opportunities.

There are a number of special events taking place throughout the week, such as Founder’s Day and a day at Thoulstone Park. You will receive an email from Norland requesting you to sign and return a consent form for Thoulstone Park. Please respond promptly to this email when you receive it. The full timetable will be released at the start of Welcome Week, and the full academic timetable will commence on Monday 14 September 2026.

During Welcome Week, there will be a city centre scavenger hunt to help you get acquainted with your new city.

The Visa Manager will be in touch to arrange a meeting with you during Welcome Week to make sure you have all the documents you need, and to give you the opportunity to ask any questions you may have about being a visa student at Norland.

There is no student parking at Norland and parking is extremely limited in the local vicinity. Please be respectful of residents and do not park in the area. Please use public transport to travel to campus where possible.

There is no cafeteria on-site, so please remember to bring your lunch with you. Student kitchen facilities are available in the Common Room and hot drinks are provided. There are local supermarkets within a short walk of campus.

Our address is: Norland, 39–41 Upper Oldfield Park, Bath, BA2 3LB

It’s a good idea to venture out beyond the Oldfield Park campus and find out what the surrounding area has to offer. Moorland Road is just a stone’s throw away from Norland and offers a small selection of coffee shops, restaurants and a local supermarket, which is perfect for popping out to between lectures. This is also a very popular student residential area, so make sure you check it out, as a lot of students decide to live in this area in their second year.

Meeting new people can be scary, especially if you have to live with them for the next year, so make a good first impression by being friendly and try your best not to lock yourself away in your room. Having problems with your housemates is not uncommon at university, but remember to be kind and considerate towards others and compromise where you can.

The city centre is easily accessible and small enough to explore on foot, with excellent bus links to and from student accommodation areas. There are other transport options listed below.

The University of Bath’s U1 bus runs frequently on weekdays, and it is just a 5-minute ride from the bus station to Lower Oldfield Park, which is just around the corner from Norland. A student day ticket is £6.50, and you do not need to be a University of Bath student to use this service. Visit First Bus’s website for the full timetable and bus routes.

Odd Down Park and Ride will stop once on the way into the city centre on Wells Road, Oldfield Road. Norland is a 10-minute walk from there. Visit Travel West’s website for more information about the service.

There is a taxi rank outside Bath Spa train station. Uber also operates in the city.

It takes about 20 minutes to walk from Bath Spa train station or 10 minutes from Oldfield Park train station to Norland’s Oldfield Park site.

Please be aware that there is no student parking on campus and parking is very limited in the local vicinity, so students are advised to use public transport where possible. As mentioned previously, please respect local residents and do not use your car to travel to campus.

Bath has hundreds of restaurants, pubs, bars and coffee shops. While there are several well-known chains scattered throughout the city, Bath supports independent businesses, and new places appear all the time. Restaurants and cafes often have student promotions on throughout the year, so remember to keep your TOTUM card handy!

Bath’s shops are dotted between the picturesque Georgian parades and charming side streets, which are all within easy walking distance of one another. Most of the high-street stores can be found in the SouthGate Centre, but if you’re looking for quirky artisan shops, then head to Milsom Street, which is just a 10-minute walk away.

Every year in October, SouthGate Shopping Centre holds a student night for new and returning students. Students can enjoy discounts of up to 20% on a wide range of high-street brands for one night only. You will need to pre-register at southgatebath.com and have a valid student ID with you when making purchases.

You might also want to download TOTUM!, UNiDAYS and Student Beans apps for exclusive discounts and events throughout the year.

The Theatre Royal is one of the oldest and most beautiful theatres in Britain. It is a major touring venue and regularly features famous actors. Attached to this is The Egg, a fantastic theatre that offers some of the best work for children and family audiences.

In addition, the Rondo Theatre, the Mission Theatre and Ustinov Studio (which is the base for the Theatre Royal’s Youth Theatre) put on a wide variety of smaller productions.

If film is your thing, the Little Theatre in the centre of town is an art-house cinema which offers screenings of independent, mainstream and world cinema. Bath also has an eight-screen Odeon cinema, where you can watch the latest blockbusters, and a four-screen Everyman cinema.

There are plenty of opportunities to participate in your favourite sport. Bath has several gyms and fitness centres to help you stay active. DW Fitness is located in the city centre and you can also access the University of Bath’s gym and Olympic-size swimming pool, which are open to the public.

Bath hosts an extensive calendar of events and activities throughout the year. These include the Bath Festival (a 10-day multi-arts event); film, comedy andliterature festivals; the Bath Fringe Festival; and Bath International Music Festival, to name but a few. The Bath Christmas Market is always a popular event, and the city is well served for sport, with the much-loved Bath Rugby club hosting rugby union games throughout the season at the Recreation Ground.

For those times when the bustle of a larger city is required, Bath offers excellent rail links to Bristol, which is only 15 minutes away, and London, which can be reached in an hour and a half. Bath is also surrounded by countryside, towns and villages for those days when you want to unwind from city life.

Norland students have exclusive access to Bath Spa Students’ Union clubs along with its societies, sports teams and more. Details of how you can becomea member of the Bath Spa Students’ Union will be  provided during Welcome Week. In the meantime, why not take a sneak peek at Bath Spa University’s SU website.

It’s always a good idea to register with a local GP when you move to a new area. If you happen to fall ill, you want to know that you can visit a doctor close by instead of having an additional journey home, which may prolong your illness. Visit the NHS website to find a local practice in Bath.