Inner city `shadows' visit colleges

Talented sixth formers from inner city schools all over the UK arrived in Oxford this week for a chance to sample what student life at Oxford is really like. The programme, run by the Oxford Access Scheme, enables 15 A-level students to spend four days in Oxford shadowing students from backgrounds similar to their own. They live in college, attending lectures, tutorials, and meals with their hosts, as well as joining in typical student social life, and can also become temporary readers of the Bodleian Library. The aim of the programme, now in its third year, is to challenge some sixth formers' perceptions of the University. Ms Neela Mukherjee, Access Scheme co-ordinator, said: `Many students on the programme come from under-resourced schools in deprived inner city areas, and Oxford University seems almost to be on another planet. `By following an undergraduate's schedule for four days, we hope participants will gain a more realistic and positive image.' In the past sixth formers on the programme have found the real Oxford very different from their expectations. One recent participant's parting comment was: `I have seen that Oxford is within my reach, and not a million miles away.' The Oxford Access Scheme was set up in 1991, to encourage able students from inner city schools and ethnic minority backgrounds to consider applying to Oxford. It is largely run by student volunteers and funded partly by a combination of University grant and corporate sponsorship. This year total funding amounted to approximately £13,000. Besides running the shadowing programme, the Access Scheme organises open days, interview training practice, and school visits. Last year, for the first time, it staged a science summer school for A-level students, with the aim of interesting sixth-formers from inner cities in a wide range of university science courses and science-based careers.