New welcome weekend for incoming students hailed as a success

In January 2019, INSEAD students in the Class of MBA’19D were welcomed on campus with a new, student-led Welcome Weekend.

This weekend of activities focuses on building teams that work together to overcome challenges. For INSEAD, a business school with two MBA classes each on an accelerated learning track, this is essential for creating lasting bonds between senior and junior classes.

When INSEAD added a second intake to our year-long MBA programme in the 1980s, students established Welcome Week. This student-led set of activities introduced new students to the INSEAD culture and their senior classmates.

This year saw the start of a new tradition at INSEAD. The Welcome Weekend is two days of student-led activities that connect new INSEAD MBA students with the senior class and prepare them for the intense learning journey to come.

Students who choose to take part are randomly assigned to one of six houses, each with a specific theme that embraces our INSEAD values. Houses compete in areas such as a scavenger hunt, knowledge quiz and escape room – designed and orchestrated by the senior class. The winning house receives a trophy to then pass to the winners in the next incoming class, carrying the tradition forward.

Feedback from both classes involved in Welcome Weekend is extremely positive. The activities bond the classes together and healthy competition teaches the value of cooperation, collaboration and teamwork.

This change in how we welcome students was prompted by a July 2018 letter from the Comité National Contre le Bizutage (CNCB), or the French National Committee Against Hazing, outlining a complaint from several INSEAD students.

At the time, we suspended all student-led welcome activities and committed to cooperate fully with the CNCB to understand the nature and long-term ramifications of the complaint. The outcomes were clear. We had to find different approaches to welcoming new students. Failure to do so could put INSEAD students at physical and emotional risk and even jeopardise our ability to operate. This was unacceptable.

Since that decision, we listened to our alumni community and their experiences. And we worked with student leaders to develop innovative welcoming activities that incorporate the positive aspects of Welcome Week, in accordance with our code of conduct, best practices and CNCB regulations.

I encourage everyone in the INSEAD community and business school community to support the new Welcome Weekend tradition. The collaborative process has yielded a positive experience that builds lasting bonds and ensures welcome activities do not put the health and well-being of any student at risk. This is worth celebrating.

With support of the INSEAD community, this positive experience can become a tradition that lasts for generations.