Close
Our weekly student newsletters are sent to all undergraduate and postgraduate students to keep them up to date with important information and to enable them to make the most of their student life.
What are the weekly student newsletters?
Editorial process
UCL's Survey Policy
Criteria to be included in the weekly newsletters
Other student communications channels
Can I subscribe?
What are the weekly student newsletters?
During term time, we send out two newsletters –– one for undergraduates and one for postgraduates –– weekly on Monday afternoons. The newsletters feature 8-10 priority items each week.
They include:
- Announcements: Need-to-know updates and information about UCL
- Social events: Things to get involved with around campus, from filmmaking and foodie activities, to festivals, volunteering and talks with world leaders.
- Support resources: Useful wellbeing resources including mental health and disability support
- Student news: Positive, uplifting news stories for and from our student community.
- Careers opportunities: Careers panels, workshops and research/internships and part-time opportunities for students
Editorial process
We welcome story ideas from across the university. Given the volume of activity and achievement by our staff and students, this policy outlines how you should submit material for the weekly newsletters.
Sometimes, we might add your event to the newsletter at a later date, depending on what we have to fit in each week.
- We do not include content in the newsletter more than once to avoid duplication and promote a wide range of things across campus
- We also do not promote an event in the newsletter more than two weeks in advance
- We do not promote news or announcements for specialist audience groups, unless widely applicable to all students
- We do not promote individual student societies' events and information as there are hundreds of societies each with their own events throughout the year and we have limited space in the newsletter. As an alternative, you can promote your society through the Students' Union
- We do not include research studies wanting to promote surveys or recruiting participants.
Criteria to be included in the weekly newsletters
The weekly student newsletters are the primary way in which we communicate need-to-know information to our students. As this newsletter is a functional email and not a marketing newsletter, we cannot include external marketing content, for example, discounts and offers.
For content to be included in the weekly newsletters, it needs to:
- be published on a website which we can link to in the newsletters. Please send us the URL link and a content blurb (50-100 words). Unfortunately, due to the format of the newsletters we cannot include content longer than this
- if an event, it should have a confirmed date and time, venue, title, and booking contact details, be an event that is organised by a UCL department and takes place on the UCL campus or be an event which is organised by UCL with UCL speakers but takes place at a non-UCL venue
- be relevant to a significant proportion of UCL students.
We usually prioritise stories for the newsletter based on what’s most relevant and helpful for all students. We might also make small edits to the copy to keep it consistent with our tone of voice.
If you would like to have a record of a specialist conference you should contact your departmental or divisional newsletter (if available) about publicising this. If a conference is of genuine relevance to a wider audience or high profile, we may choose to cover it in one of the internal communications channels listed above.
For content to be published on the student news feed it needs to:
We prefer that content be hosted on the website relevant to the news item. However, if it is widely relevant to all students, please email studentcommunications@ucl.ac.uk with a draft submission and image (800x500) attached and a sentence or two telling us what it is about. The content needs to:
- be clearly relevant to a majority of the student body
- be approved by a relevant member of staff (or line manager) if necessary
- be written in plain English (see our guidance on UCL house style)
- Include a cover image (800x500) with descriptive alternative text (see our guidance on creating accessible content). Images can be sourced from the UCL Imagestore which is our digital archive of images produced by the UCL Digital Media Photographic team
- include accessible hyperlinks (if applicable). (See our guidance on accessible hyperlinks).
We prefer that you send us a draft of your story which we can then review and discuss with you. Please also provide alternative text for any images you wish to include.
See our guidance on alternative text here
The Central Communications Team will work with you collaboratively to arrive at a final version. Your content needs to:
Other channels
The weekly newsletters are for all students, at all levels of study. If we decide not to pursue a story for it, there are several other channels you can use to publicise it internally.
These include:
- The weekly internal roundup - The internal roundup is shared via Microsoft Teams to staff members who then share these messages with students across faculties and departments through more granular channels.
- Students’ Union newsletter
- Relevant faculty/department-level channels
- Social media channels
- Student editorial board
- Brand Communications Marketing Group (BCMG)
- Internal Communications Community of Practice
If you want to submit an event listing to the UCL events calendar please visit the submit an event webpage for more information. Events listings are managed by the UCL Events Team.
Can I subscribe?
If you are a student, you will be automatically added to the mailing list when you enroll.
As a student you receive these emails to inform you of need-to-know information that will allow you to make the most of your time while you are studying. This includes everything from university closures, safety information, wellbeing resources and other opportunities.
For this reason, there is no option to unsubscribe however, you have the option to unsubscribe from any other UCL newsletters.
If you are a staff member and would like to be added to the mailing list, please submit a MyServices request (under CRM D365 Vice Provost for External Engagement Marketing) and let them know if you would like to receive the undergraduate, postgraduate or both newsletters.