Freshers Week at Two Very Different Universities

Photographer Orlando Gili documented two freshers parties: one at Leeds, one at Cambridge.

October 31, 2018, 9:15am

All photos: Orlando Gili

The student experience has many common markers. You will, undoubtedly, fuck up a pan while trying to cook something very simple. You will, more often than not, do something excruciatingly embarrassing while trying to make new friends, which will mentally resurface at random for literally the rest of your life. You will be saddled with debilitating debt.

The arenas in which these experiences can happen, however, can vary quite a bit. You have your sporty unis, your arty unis, your more pretentious arty unis, your druggy unis, your posh unis, your clever unis, your party unis, your not-really-uni unis, your Sports Science degree unis, your horsey unis, your excruciatingly boring small town unis – and the rest.

Orlando Gili spent the recent freshers week period at two very different types of uni: Leeds, which is notoriously one of the best party universities in the country; and Cambridge, which is famously one of the poshest universities in the world. Below are photos of what he saw.