Saturday 13 December 2025

If you are looking for a specific room on campus, our room codes will tell you where to go.

The first two letters of your room code refer to a campus building: 

• C.C. - Creative Centre
• C.D. - Cordukes
• D.G. - De Grey
• D.T. - Design Centre
• F.S. - Foss
• F.T. - Fountains Learning Centre
• H.G. - Holgate
• M.C. - McGregor
• P.H. - Phoenix
• Q.N. - Quad North
• Q.S. - Quad South
• Q.W. - Quad West
• S.K. - Skell
• W.T. - Wilmott

The 3 digit number refers to where the room is within the building:

• 000 - Ground floor
• 100 - First floor
• 200 - Second floor

There are signs in each building to guide you to the correct room.

There is 1 signing in station at our Visit Day, in Temple Foyer. To get to the signing in station, please enter our campus at Lord Mayor's Walk:

• Entrance: Lord Mayor's Walk (see pin on Google Maps)

Please only enter our campus at the designated signing in station and not at our main University reception. We need to keep track of visitors for safety and security and we appreciate your help with this.

You will be able to sign in at a podium with a member of our Visit Day team. When you sign in, you will need to show the QR code you received in your email to the staff member, who will scan the code and sign you in. If you can't find your QR code, we can still find your booking using your full name. Please have your booking information ready when you arrive at the signing in station.

If you attend without booking a place, we will ask you to register when you arrive.

Guests: We do not limit how many guests you can bring with you to the Visit Day, but we give priority in talks and tours to the prospective students. We kindly request that large accompanying groups leave 1 guest with the student in busy tours and talks.

Our Visit Day will include a welcome talk to introduce you to York St John University.

11.15am to 11.45am - Creative Centre Auditorium

The welcome talk will last around 25 minutes. If the talk reaches full capacity, we will open an overflow venue where you can watch a live stream of the session.

All of our talks are optional, and we advise planning your day in advance so that you know which talks you want to attend. Check talk times in advance to make the most of your day.

Drop-in

Academic staff from our courses will be available to speak to from 11.30am to 2pm in Temple Hall.

You can find out everything you need to know about your course, and get to know the staff who could be teaching you.

Talks

Our accommodation talk will be taking place at the following time and location:

12.00pm - Creative Centre Auditorium

This talk will last approximately 30 minutes.

Please note that this talk is likely to fill up quickly and will not be live streamed to secondary locations.

Drop-in

The Accommodation team are available to speak to from 10.45am to 2.00pm in the Creative Centre Atrium.

Drop-in

The Student Funding Advice team are also available to speak to from 10.45am to 2.00pm in the Creative Centre atrium (First floor).

Talks

Hear from our Admissions team about how to write an effective personal statement for your UCAS application. This talk will take place at:

12.40pm to 13:10pm - Creative Centre Auditorium

Drop-in

The Admissions team will be available to speak to from 10.45am to 2.00pm in the Creative Centre atrium (First floor).

Drop-in

The Students' Union team will be available to speak to from 10.45am to 2.00pm in the Students' Union.

Drop-in

Chat to our friendly staff about the range of support we provide for our students.

The Student Support team will be available to speak to from from 10.45am to 2.00pm in the Creative Centre atrium (First floor).

Drop-in

Talk to our Careers, Placements and Student Opportunities team in our modern careers centre about the services they offer, from work placements to study abroad trips.

The team will be available to speak to from 10.45am to 2.00pm in the Future You (Careers space) in Holgate.

Drop-in

Speak with our specialist HELP team in our new Student Hub space about the services and support we offer to students.

The team will be available to speak to from 10.45am to 2.00pm in the Student Hub in Holgate.

Guided tours will be running throughout the Visit Day so that you can explore our beautiful, historic campus.

Tours are led by current York St John students and last approximately 45 minutes. Your campus tour group will be up to 30 people. On these tours you will see general study facilities including our library, but you will not enter specialist subject facilities. For more information about these specialist facilities, you can speak to staff at our drop-in sessions.

Campus tours will begin at 10.30am, departing approximately every 10 minutes until last departure at 2.00pm

Please meet at the Holgate building to join a campus tour group.

No tickets are required for campus tours.

Tours will be taking place whatever the weather - please dress warmly!

Several rooms will be open to view at 3 of our accommodation sites: City Residence, The Grange and St John Central. You can access these sites on one of our guided walking tours - times are listed below.

Please note that access is available on our tours only. If you visit the sites independently, you will not be able to access rooms.

Details of specific accommodation sites open to view on the day will be published soon. Please check back for tour times and to plan your day.

Expectations for accommodation tours

If you plan to view student accommodation as part of your Visit Day, please familiarise yourself with the following information.

The rooms you have been invited to view are students' homes. To make sure both our guests and our students have a positive experience, we ask that you:

• Please listen carefully to any instructions from our student ambassadors.
• Please wait patiently to access the rooms - only a small number of guests will be able to enter the room at a time.
• Please do not try to access rooms which are not open to view.
• Please treat the students who live here with dignity and respect.
• Give feedback about the accommodation open to view to the relevant team back on campus and not to the students showing their rooms.

For the safety and comfort of everyone at our accommodation sites, security teams will be present during the Visit Day. Failure to comply with these requests may result in you being asked to leave the accommodation.

Transport is available to and from our Haxby Road Sports Park site during the Visit Day. Tours are tailored for students interested in studying one of our Sport courses.

No tickets are required for Sports Park tours.

For the Sports Park tour, your shuttle taking you from our main campus will meet you next to our St Anthony's House building. Please be at the pick up point at least 5 minutes before the departure time. Priority for places on the shuttle bus will be given to applicants.

Timings for the tour are:

1.15pm to 2PM - Bus pick-up time. Tours will last around 45 minutes including travel time. Once the tour has finished, you will arrive back at campus.

If you want to end your Visit Day with some festive fun, you can join a walking tour to the famous York Christmas Market. Tours will depart at:

1.00pm - Holgate tour meeting point
1.45pm - Holgate tour meeting point

Tours will be led by our student ambassadors so you will have the chance to ask them questions on the way.

Our helpdesk team will be available on campus all day to help with your questions. If you need directions, lost property information, or if you just have some general questions, you can speak to the team at our information desk in the Creative Centre building.

The information helpdesk will be staffed from 10.30am to 2.00pm.

For directions and travel information on how to find our campus, visit our dedicated page:

How to find us

Because our campus is located in the city centre, we will not be running shuttle buses from York railway station. We are around a 10 to 15 minute walk from the station, or a short taxi ride. Taxis will cost around £5 (York Cars), £6 (Fleetways), or £10 (Uber).

We advise you to check the times of subject talks you want to attend when planning your travel.

For travel information on getting to York St John, visit our Find us page.

Unfortunately there is no on-campus parking available for visitors. Parking spaces on our campus are controlled by automatic number plate recognition and you may incur fines if you stay longer than the grace period. There is also no parking at our accommodation or Sports Park sites.

There are several council-owned car parks near the York St John campus, but please be aware that these can be costly if you are staying all day. York is well served by Park and Ride services on all major entry roads. We encourage visitors to use these wherever possible.

Please note that the car parks closest to the campus (Union Terrace, Monk Bar and Foss Bank) are popular shopping and tourist car parks so may be full by mid morning. 

We aim to make our Visit Days as accessible as possible. If you are a Blue Badge user, you are welcome to drop off and pick up on campus. We ask that you do not stay longer than 20 minutes while picking up or dropping off so that others are also able to use these slots. 

Free tea and coffee will be available from the dining room extension of the Holgate building.

We have multiple food and drink outlets on campus where you can buy lunch and other refreshments. These include:

• Holgate Dining Room, Holgate building
• Fountains Cafe, Fountains Learning Centre
• Haxby Road Sports Park cafe

York also has many local businesses nearby offering a range of food and drinks. The streets Gillygate and Goodramgate are close to campus and have lots of cafe options.

Wheelchair accessibility

When you arrive at Visit Day, all visitors including wheelchair users can sign in at our main entrance. Wheelchair users may need to take an alternative route to progress into the centre of our campus as the main route includes 4 steps.

The accessible route will be out of the sliding doors from our sign in station in the Arts Foyer. You can then follow the signs to exit the buildings near the Phoenix building, and enter the Quad through the archway. This route is shown on the Visit Day map you will receive when you sign in.

All talks take place in wheelchair accessible areas. The majority of our campus tour route is accessible to wheelchair users, however due to the nature of our older listed buildings, some areas are not. If you have any questions about accessibility please visit the Information Helpdesk.

Hearing accessibility

For visitors who benefit from the use of a Hearing loop, most of our areas on campus are fitted with this equipment. This equipment is checked ahead of each event. If you experience any difficulties, please report these to our information helpdesk in the Holgate building. Additional microphones on lanyards are also available from the helpdesk if they are needed.

If you need a British Sign Language interpreter for your visit to the Visit Day, we can arrange this. We will need advance notice to organise interpretation, so please aim to tell us about your needs when you book, or 3 weeks in advance of the event.

Dyslexia and reading accessibility

If you need a coloured overlay to help with reading information at the Visit Day, a selection of overlays is available at the Information Helpdesk.

We are not expecting any fire alarm tests so if you do hear a continuous fire alarm please evacuate the building through your nearest fire exit. Staff and Student Ambassadors will guide you to the assembly point, which is on the front lawn outside Lord Mayor's Walk.

If you require first aid during your visit please notify a member of staff or a Student Ambassador and they will contact the nearest first aider. Alternatively, you can call our Security Team on 01904 876 444. For emergency first aid please alert the nearest member of staff. Defibrillators are kept at the security office, Foss reception and Haxby Road reception.

We will have several Mental Health First Aiders on campus during the day, if you find the day overwhelming or need support. Please visit the Chapel quite space or the Students' Union lounge for this support.

Unfortunately we do not have capacity to store left luggage or heavy items. We recommend using local services at Yorbag on Petergate or Left Luggage at York railway station.

If you misplace any belongings, please check with us at the reception desk in the Holgate building. After the event has finished, any lost property will be taken to the Porters Lodge.

York St John University is proud to be a smoke free campus. Smoking or vaping is not permitted on campus grounds. Should you need a cigarette or vape break, please make your way temporarily off campus.

The safety of our visitors is very important to us, so we have extra security staff patrolling campus and accommodation sites on the day. If you wish to report something please alert a member of staff immediately.

Our photographer, videographer, and social media team will be taking photos and videos at the Visit Day.

This content will be used in print, digital media, and social media. If you do not wish to appear in any images please let the photographer know.

We may approach some visitors on the day to ask if you will take part in recording content for social media. If you are interested in being involved, please let us know at the Information Helpdesk.

There are currently building works taking place in and around our Design Centre building.

Please take care around building works and do not enter cordoned off areas. There should be minimal disruption to your Visit Day experience, but if you have any concerns please speak to Helpdesk staff.