A new campaign called #loveDMU is ensuring life at De Montfort University Leicester kicks off with a bang in 2016 and gives students more reasons to be proud of their university.
#loveDMU will see competitions held each day from now until 22 January, with prizes including Amazon Kindles, free memberships to the QEII Leisure Centre and a free lunch on campus every weekday for a month, writes Conor Davies.
Alongside the incredible £136 million campus transformation, DMU is continuing to provide its students with a rewarding experience.
As part of the campaign, the university has listed 10 reasons why students should #loveDMU in 2016.
Creator of the scheme, Professor Michael Young, Pro-Vice Chancellor for Teaching and Learning, said: “It’s important for our students to feel as comfortable as possible at DMU and #loveDMU aims to do just that by providing lots of different support and activities for them.
“With the campus transformation that is ongoing, DMU is a great, thriving place to be at the moment and we hope to add to that feeling with this new initiative.
“We hope to emulate the success that came with other on-going campaigns #DMUglobal and #DMUlocal.”
Whether it is Kimberlin Library staying open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week following its refurbishment over the summer months, or the various schemes that aim to improve student employability there’s opportunities for everyone.
The Graduate Champions scheme gives students the chance to add vital work experience with leading UK businesses to the CV, while Frontrunners lets them combine work placements their with studies to provide more income and crucial contacts for the future.
Internal Communications officer, Lauren Clarke, who helped launch the scheme, said: “We want to help our students achieve their goals for 2016 by letting them know about some of the things we have been doing to make their experience with us even better.
“We’ve got a number of competitions throughout the week, and we’re giving away £50 Amazon vouchers every day when students tweet using the hashtag #loveDMU.
“It’ll be a fun thing to get involved with!”
The gifts keep on coming too, in the form of ticket giveaways for the biggest sporting events in Leicester.
Through partnerships with Leicester City Football Club, Leicester Tigers and Leicestershire County Cricket Club, our students have enjoyed games such as LCFC v Manchester United and Leicester Tigers v Northampton Saints, all for free.
That’s not the end of the sport though, as the De Montfort Student Union (DSU) also provides more than 150 societies and sports clubs for participation, with a number of new facilities in development.
The first of these is the £1m Watershed, based on the River Soar, which has its own sports hall, common room areas and will cater for a range of sporting and social activities.
Healthy eating and getting fit is often many people’s big New Year resolution, and with the QEII Leisure Centre extending its weekday opening hours and further refurbishment in the Oasis and Kimberlin cafes, there’s more healthy choices available than ever.
And of course, #DMUglobal and #DMUlocal offer fantastic opportunities for all students to try out new activities both abroad and at home.
#DMUglobal has seen students take in the cultures of India, Brazil and the Gambia amongst others while #DMUlocal focuses on getting students to volunteer and contribute to the Leicester community.
Posted on Monday 11 January 2016