Beyond Welcome: A Game-Based Orientation Day to Support First-Year Students and Their Wellbeing

Supporting first-year students as soon as they arrive in higher education is critical for their transition and wellbeing. This chapter presents a good practice example of a game-based orientation day, aimed at large heterogeneous student cohorts, at a large Western European university (Ghent University, Belgium). Grounded in educational theory on student wellbeing and game-based learning, the orientation day is designed and implemented to support transitional needs, including peer connection, campus familiarity, and administrative clarity. The orientation day is organised as a scavenger hunt with discipline-specific storytelling, combining small-group collaboration with informative challenges across campus. This chapter summarises the results of two empirical studies evaluating the initiative: qualitative data indicated students’ positive perceptions of the game-based orientation day, while quantitative data showed significantly higher wellbeing outcomes than a more conventional lecture-based alternative. Recognised as an institutional best practice, the format has since been scaled across faculties. This chapter offers a replicable model for institutions seeking to design effective, student-centred orientation activities that foster engagement and wellbeing from the first day in higher education.