The curious case of Freddie Meowcury: Fostering creativity in students through a pre-arrival transition course

“There’s a cat loose in the Transition into Higher Education course and we’ve found his accomplices. Can you help us to solve the case of the DCAD cat?” Durham University’s Transition into Higher Education project has been a trailblazer, easing students’ entry into university life for over a decade. Based in the Durham Centre for Academic Development (DCAD), it has reached over 80,000 students worldwide. This initiative offers an online course to newly accepted students. It is co-created annually by a team of students, academics, and support staff. Working collaboratively with students has given us insight into the lived experience of transitioning into university and the related anxieties when making that first step. Setting students up for success is a key priority and has encouraged the team to prioritise developing students’ curiosity and creative thinking. Over the past decade we’ve implemented and evaluated different iterations. The DCAD cat, Freddie Meowcury has become an unexpected hero. Based on a departmental legend, Freddie has come to life in the minds of our students, enabling him to become a prominent feature of the transition course. Encouraging activities such as ‘spot-the-cat’ and a course-wide game of Clawdo (like Cluedo but sharper), Freddie is a reminder to be curious, creative, and mischievous. He welcomes our students to Durham University, and he has become the original DCAD disruptor. This case study will explore the work we do to support students transitioning and how, as a project team we’ve adapted over the past decade to suit the interdisciplinarity of our students, contributors, and project team by using creative practices and encouraging creative thinking. We will explore some playful and creative interventions, and the lessons learned. Focusing on Freddie’s case, we’ll use data from the five vignettes to demonstrate Freddie’s impact on student experience and engagement.