We had two days of induction when I started my PhD - they are a good idea, if nothing else they give a bit of structure to an otherwise structureless three years ("that was when I started"). Two things I didn't like:
1. everyone from the faculty of science was grouped together so it was quite vague. I don't remember having anything school-specific, so if we had something it musn't have been any good
2. we had a whole day of research talks (with a little 'personal experience' bit thrown in) from second year PhD students (again, from ALL sciences wasn't a good idea). Their comments were fairly balanced - a mixture of positives and negatives, but I remember someone telling us 'your supervisor will become your best friend' - I think the emphasis should have been much more 'you are coming to work here, act like an employee' - it was all a bit misleading really