As Dr Susan Kenyon explains, we know sometimes life gets in the way, and our students are always welcome.

‘You’re always welcome’ – our new campaign to tell our commuter students that, if they are running late, don’t worry – they are always welcome into class. This campaign tells our students that we recognise that sometimes things are out of their control – a late train, a delayed school drop off, a missed bus… This isn’t a reflection on them, or their commitment to their studies – it’s just life. And life happens to us all – in fact, on the day that the campaign was due to launch, my train was cancelled and I was late to work!

The campaign also allows us to welcome students into spaces – including our new Commuter Student Lounge – and into conversations – for example, with our new Commuter Peer Mentors – both launching soon.

The fantastic creatives were designed in-house by Liz Wood, supported by Ruth Wood and colleagues in our brilliant Student Communications team. Our campaign was inspired by Joe Holmes‘s Come on In campaign at the University of Essex – look out for a special issue of Perspectives: Policy & Practice in Higher Education, discussing this campaign, in the coming months.

We anticipate that this campaign will boost attendance. As with every aspect of the Commuter Student Project at Canterbury Christ Church University, we will be monitoring and evaluating the impact, learning, adjusting and, of course, reporting our findings.

The campaign is one of more than a dozen projects that we have at CCCU, to transform our commuter students’ experience, working in partnership with all our academic and professional services colleagues and Christ Church Students’​ Union and sponsored by our DVC, Rebecca Huxley-Binns. Thanks so much to everyone here for their support. Please do get in touch with me for more information, or with comments.

Dr Susan Kenyon, Principal Lecturer in Politics and National Teaching Fellow is also lead of the Commuter Students Project.