Northeastern London has a revamped campus tour. Here’s a sneak peak at what it has to offer
The revamped Northeastern London tour is a student-led hour-long walkaround showcasing campus spaces, new labs and iconic Thames-side landmarks.
LONDON — With a setting as spectacular as Northeastern University’s in London, a campus tour redesign had to think about the best ways to show it off.
That is the premise that Gokce Dyson, U.K. student recruitment manager, and Scott Loubser, U.K. student recruitment officer, started from when putting together a new-look tour for prospective students, their families and other visitors.
The London campus has grown in recent years with the opening of One Portsoken — the building came into operation in 2024 and two new floors were made available in September — and so the recruitment team wanted to ensure guests were able to soak in the whole environment.
“It was about showcasing what we have in London,” said Loubser. “Where campus is situated is such a beautiful part of London — right on the Thames and Tower Bridge, the Tower of London and the docks all close by.”
Loubser said the thought process behind the redesign was about showing each visitor what those who secure a place at Northeastern “will have the advantage of using while being a student with us.”
Tours are led by student ambassadors, with group sizes restricted to 10 people to ensure visitors can easily ask questions. The route can be altered so it is accessible for those with disabilities.
The hourlong walkaround is designed to emphasize that the city will be as much a classroom as the settings where the students are taught, Dyson explained. “The student ambassadors are able to talk about how different parts of London, including the local area, come into play with their different classes and projects,” she said.
In the revamped tour, participants start by exploring Devon House, the main hub of the London campus, before they are taken on a route that passes through St Katherine Dock, past Tower Bridge and the Tower of London before reaching Northeastern’s startup hub and ending at One Portsoken.
Loubser said one of the big highlights for him is being able to show off areas like the Heartspace in Devon House and watch people’s reactions as he tells them about big-name guest speakers who have held the floor there, including Coldplay drummer Will Champion.
New laboratories and the makerspace in Portsoken, which only opened this academic year, are also one of Loubser’s favourite stop-offs. Participants, with help from the lab teams, will be given the chance to see some of the equipment in action. “It’s not just pointing out the space that they have,” said Loubser, “but actually taking them into some of these classrooms, showing them that they have all of this at their disposal.”
Ahead of its official launch on Feb. 9, members of Northeastern’s senior leadership team in London, including director of resourcing and operations Sheena van der Merwe and director of student life Suzi Broadaway, took part in the tour to experience the redesigned offering for themselves. They were led by Vyom Agarwal, who, along with fellow Husky Committee member Cara Mack, helped design aspects of the tour and the script.
Editor’s Picks
Dyson said the tour is purposefully flexible so that student ambassadors can impart some of their own experiences while presenting. “Although the quality of the tours are the same, the specific examples will be dependent on whoever is delivering the tour that particular week,” she continued. “And we have some families returning and touring a number of times, so they then meet different ambassadors and hear different stories.”
The tour caters to a wide range of people who are interested in what life is like at Northeastern’s U.K. base, Dyson added. A group could consist of prospective students wanting to study for their entire degree in London, students who have a place on the London Scholar program — where they study for a year in the British capital before moving to Boston for the rest of their studies — and people who have just discovered Northeastern and want to know more.
“We get such a variety of people through the door, all coming as one big group for these tours, so we had to cater for all of them and keep it interesting,” Dyson said.
The tour runs three times a week: on Mondays at 11 a.m. (GMT), Wednesdays at 2 p.m. and Fridays at 3 p.m. The guided experience lasts an hour, apart from Wednesdays when it starts with an added 30-minute question-and-answer session, led by the recruitment team, that covers topics such as available degree programs, student life, global study opportunities and how to apply.
After every tour, there is the optional offer of being guided to nearby student accommodation where staff at the block can escort visitors around. Those interested can use the following link to schedule a tour.
