On Trips and Induction

I got a communique today about the whole freshers/induction week with regards to times and such. It says to report in advance if you can't attend a session, I'm not sure how much of a big deal these things really are though. For example one day I'm expected to get there for 10AM for just a single hours worth of a briefing about the library, seems like a waste of a day to me, would I be missed if I didn't go?

We also have a trip into London on the Friday, it just says to meet at the station. Would I expect something like this to be all paid for? It really doesn't give much information, normally I'd assume I had to pay, but considering I'm paying for university I'd imagine stuff like this would be included? That same afternoon there's also an event for greeting international students, I guess mostly I just want to know if attending these events is as critical as they make out.

Also, I'd be really great if they could give us some kind of hint on our timetable as I need to arrange travel and don't know what days or times I'm expected to go in. Is this information you can obtain anywhere or am I expected to wait until, really, it's a bit late?

I got a communique today about the whole freshers/induction week with regards to times and such. It says to report in advance if you can't attend a session, I'm not sure how much of a big deal these things really are though. For example one day I'm expected to get there for 10AM for just a single hours worth of a briefing about the library, seems like a waste of a day to me, would I be missed if I didn't go?

We also have a trip into London on the Friday, it just says to meet at the station. Would I expect something like this to be all paid for? It really doesn't give much information, normally I'd assume I had to pay, but considering I'm paying for university I'd imagine stuff like this would be included? That same afternoon there's also an event for greeting international students, I guess mostly I just want to know if attending these events is as critical as they make out.

Also, I'd be really great if they could give us some kind of hint on our timetable as I need to arrange travel and don't know what days or times I'm expected to go in. Is this information you can obtain anywhere or am I expected to wait until, really, it's a bit late?

How is it a waste of a day? You're finished by 11 and have the rest of the day to yourself. Also, get used to it because you may have days on your timetable when you're only in for an hour or two per day.

I doubt the London trip would be paid for, but that's something you'd have to clarify.

It just seems really silly to me that you'd pay all of that money to go to uni and then skip the first 3 things that they arrange to try and help you settle in...

First years don't tend to get their lecture timetables until freshers week at the earliest and then if it's anything like my uni used to do it (changed this year), then tutorials won't be confirmed until week two, so you won't know your full timetable until then. My uni has changed it so we get our full final timetable two weeks before classes start now though.

You should've been thinking about travel arrangements prior to now anyway. You obviously knew you were going to uni and would be expected to be there at different times on different days, I'm not really sure how it will be too late to arrange travel unless you expect someone to drive you to and from uni everyday and you need to give them notice.