Reaching out

Each year the University extends its efforts to attract the best and brightest students, irrespective of their background, and to raise aspiration for higher education among under-represented groups. A number of innovations have taken place during the past year in order to reach out to the undergraduates of the future.

A UNIQ experience

Oxford launched the UNIQ summer schools in July 2010 to widespread publicity. This flagship outreach programme offered high-performing state school and college sixth-form students the chance to spend a week finding out what life at Oxford is like. Students attended lectures in their chosen subject, lived in college accommodation, met current undergraduates and found out more about applying to Oxford, as well as engaging in a wide range of social activities ranging from open-air community theatre trips to a twilight tour of the Natural History Museum.

The UNIQ summer schools were supported by the News of the World, which campaigned for young readers to apply. The then Education Secretary Ed Balls was one of many MPs who pledged support for the programme and promoted the opportunity to schools across the country.

From more than 3,600 applications, 507 participants were selected to participate in UNIQ.  Student feedback was overwhelmingly positive, with 95 per cent of students reporting a more informed view of their subject and feeling more confident that they would fit in at Oxford. Sixty-nine per cent of participants have subsequently applied to study in Oxford.

‘It was a fantastic week that far exceeded my expectations. I feel much more confident that I would fit in if I was successful in gaining a place,’ said one participant.

Regional outreach

During the past academic year, the University has put in place a regional outreach programme in order to simplify communication between the University and schools throughout the UK. Each Oxford college is now linked to a number of local authorities so that schools in each area have a named point of contact within the University. The scheme allows the University to get to know schools in specific regions better and gives schools a more direct way of staying in touch.

The recruitment team also organised seven Regional Teachers’ Conferences. These are designed to give teachers advice so that they can support their students who are applying to Oxford and help to break down any misconceptions that might deter them from applying. Funded by the Helsington Foundation, the programme covers all aspects of the admissions process from identifying candidates to writing references and preparing candidates for admissions tests and interviews. ‘This was very useful and made Oxford seem very “human”’, said one teacher from Exeter. ‘It demystified the process – particularly interviews.’

Taking science to the community

The Oxford Science Tent was the brainchild of a member the University’s Widening Participation team, which works with children under 16 from the local area. As a scientist, she felt strongly that science was exciting and fun and she wanted to communicate this to the community. The idea was piloted at the 2009 Royal County of Berkshire Show. Over the course of the weekend, children visiting the tent were able to create soap and bath bombs to take home with them, while members of the public built their own exploding volcanoes. Also taking part were Marcus’ Marvellous Mathemagicians, a group of mathematics students championed by Marcus du Sautoy, the Charles Simonyi Professor for the Public Understanding of Science, and Chemistry Connect, the outreach arm of the Department of Chemistry. The first appearance of the tent in Oxford was at the Cowley Road Carnival in July 2010, where it attracted more than 35,000 visitors, and the team is hoping that it will become a regular feature at many more Oxfordshire community events in the future.

Digital recruitment tools

The University continues to expand its range of digital recruitment tools designed to help prospective students find out more about the reality of studying at Oxford. The latest tools include a series of audio admissions tours for visitors to download from the Oxford University website onto their MP3 players. The tours, which take between 60 and 90 minutes, enable prospective students to follow different routes around Oxford according to the subject area they are interested in. They include colleges, departments and central University locations, and tell listeners more about the University and about the admissions process.

A series of animations, explaining the application process and helping students to understand the collegiate system, have also been made available for the first time. These use a fun and engaging style to capture the interest of the prospective students and to answer some of their most common queries. A video which explains what Open Days are all about and to assist students to make the most of their visit was launched in August 2010.  These new online initiatives are proving extremely popular and the (undergraduate) admissions site is averaging 61,365 hits per day, representing an 13 per cent increase compared to the same time last year.