Welcome to Creative Computing at Norwich
Information for new students
This page will help you get ready for your first few weeks, with everything you need to know before you arrive.
Welcome Week
Welcome Week begins on Monday 21 September. You’ll meet your course team, get to know your studios and facilities, and begin settling into life at Norwich. You’ll also find out more about university life and the support available throughout your studies.
It’s a great opportunity to meet other students, make new connections, and start exploring the city of Norwich.
Teaching
Teaching starts on Monday 28 September. We’ll introduce the structure of your first year, explain how your course is organised and outline what you’ll be working towards.
Your timetable will be available online once you’ve enrolled. We’ve kept Monday and Wednesday afternoons free from teaching, giving you dedicated time for independent study, clubs, societies and other commitments.
How to prepare
Your course leader has put together the information below to help you prepare for starting your course in September.
Key staff members are Jamie Gledhill, Course Leader, and Diana Vallverdu, Lecturer, both of whom you will meet during Welcome Week. Our introductory session will be at 9:30 on Monday September 15th when we start to get to know each other through a couple of fun workshops – no preparation is necessary!
The first official taught day of your course is Tuesday September 23 2025.
Standard teaching days are all day Tuesday, Wednesday morning and all-day Thursday during which time you will participate in a mix of workshops, lectures and tutorials. Bring a pen and paper and be prepared to take notes to get the most out of these sessions – although session slides will always be made available to you.
Classes will generally be on-campus and in-person although Wednesday morning sessions for the first 8 weeks will be online. The rest of the week will usually be independent study time for you to research and develop your projects. Note that Wednesday afternoons are reserved as non-taught periods to allow you to participate in clubs, sports or any other activities you might be interested in. Individual timetables will be given at the start of the course.
On independent study days, and days where digital teaching is scheduled, you will be able to access the campus to continue your work as needed, or you can elect to work remotely. We will help you plan your time.
The course is naturally technical but also creative (as the name suggests!) and caters for a wide range of interests all the way from commercially applicable disciplines, e.g., full stack web development, to those that are more artistically creative, e.g., audio-responsive visualisation. The teaching staff thoroughly enjoy being creative with computer programming and physical technology and hope you will too! Our courses are smaller than some of the more established subjects, but very well equipped and with an excellent student to tutor ratio, which makes us feel more like a community of like-minded learners than a traditional undergraduate course.
Things to do
You will see that we’ve included some suggestions of things you might like to read, watch and do before you arrive, so please read through this section carefully.
W3Schools Introduction to Programming
If you do not already possess basic computer programming skills or you feel that you might benefit from brushing them up, we recommend that you work through the W3Schools Introduction to Programming pages
Introduction to Programming (opens in a new window)Website development
You will also benefit from developing your web development knowledge prior to arrival as this is the first programming context we will work with in Year 1 of both BSc Creative Computing and BSc Creative Technology and Robotics. W3Schools also provides a useful of set of web development resources which you are advised to take a look at. Don’t feel like you have to complete each of these courses, just working through a few stages of each will give you very useful foundational knowledge
Things to read and watch
If you want to be impressed by what’s possible with creative computing, technology and robotics, take a look at the following links.
Bruno Imbrizi
Creative coder Bruno Imbrizi’s portfolio
Bruno Imbrizi (opens in a new window)Licia He
Creative coder and plotter enthusiast, Licia He’s website and portfolio
Eyes of Panda (opens in a new window)Recursive Digital
Creative technology agency Recursive Digital’s website
Recursive Digital (opens in a new window)The Media Workshop
Digital Production house The Media Workshop’s website
The Media Workshop (opens in a new window)IT equipment
It will be necessary for you to have at least a basic computer you can work on from home, however you don’t need to bring your machine into classes as the University will provide you with access to suitable computers during taught sessions and via computer labs accessible in the evenings and on Saturdays during term time. Our general IT equipment guidance will give you further insight into buying a computer for University and has a recommended specification for 3D Modelling, Animation, and Games Development which will be more than adequate for BSc Creative Computing and BSc Creative Technology and Robotics.
If you are thinking about buying a new computer, you are advised to talk to your course team first as they will be able to provide you with specific guidance and highlight any special offers that may be available to you.
Many students like to invest in a notebook they can bring to sessions.