Freshers' Week

The first week of every Autumn term, when new students are introduced to university life.

In YSTV terms one of the busiest weeks of the year, as it involves trying to persuade as many Freshers as possible to sign up to be members. A variety of initiatives have been used over the years to persuade people to get involved.

• 1996 - The Saturday Show was part of the push for new members.
• 1998 - Debbie's How To on Campus aimed to guide Freshers to the key places on campus.
• 2000 - Inspired by appearing on The Big Breakfast, YSTV screened YSTV-am every day of the week in an attempt to get new people involved.
• 2001 - This Afternoon was this year's special programme, also shown every day.
• 2002 - After apparently little response by freshers to the massive efforts put into the programming of the past two years the bulk of this year's push was centred around providing very visible big-screen (off-air) coverage of Access All Areas and the annual Freshers' Talks for the first time. Freshers' Fair this year involved showing off NaffoCue for the hordes signing up.
• 2003 - A low point in membership so more of a crucial week than ever. The week kicked off with the usual Freshers' Talks, and there were also a special first-night broadcast of Off The Cuff to attract attention in the crammed bars. Finally Freshers' Fair saw the new chroma key system being demonstrated with some highlights bring projected. Nearly all of the previous year's graduating members returned to lend a hand. The network screened a mixture of highlight compilations and full shows during the week. A plan to simulcast a daily URY show from Vanbrugh Bar however fell through.
• 2004 - Once again the Freshers' Talks were filmed, and Freshers' Fair saw more highlights being projected along a project to film a YSTV version of the Channel 4 "questions" promotions. The Sunday afternoon welcome meeting also for the first time included a NaSTA-style "Golden Bodge" for people to try their hands at.
• 2005 - A special Guide To Campus programme was produced, and Freshers' Fair saw a fancy plasma screen being used to screen highlights. Freshers also had the opportunity to use Magic DaVE and Death Star.
• 2006 - YSTV filmed a number of events including Access All Areas, and the Freshers' Fair presence this time included live links from the Physics concourse played out on the network in between recorded highlights of previous shows.
• 2009 - YSTV provided the information screens for Access All Areas, and filmed interviews at Freshers' Ball, presented by Richard McLoughlin.
• 2018 - See: Freshers' Week 2018