Applications open for Oxford’s new UNIQ Summer Schools
10 February 2010
Applications are open for the University of Oxford’s new UNIQ Summer Schools.
Targeted at high performing year 12 students in state schools and colleges, 500 places will be available across 20 undergraduate degree subjects.
Taking place in July 2010, the summer schools will see successful applicants spend a week living in an Oxford college, attending lectures and labs in their chosen subject, being mentored by current undergraduate students and taught by Oxford academics.
Oxford is looking for bright young students from Swindon and the surrounding areas to apply for the programme.
Joseph O’Keefe, a third-year undergraduate studying Russian at Exeter College, went to Headlands Comprehensive School and attended a Sutton Trust Summer School at Oxford in 2006. He said: " I thought it was pointless applying to a summer school because I wasn’t even really considering university; none of my friends were and it would be so expensive.”
“Once I was accepted onto the Trust's summer school for French I was opened up to a whole different idea of teaching – I was used to classes of 30 not 5! I really decided to apply to Oxford after I had a mock tutorial with a professor who taught us how to read Russian in 30 minutes. I'd had no exposure to the language before, so the opportunity to study Russian from scratch was too exciting to miss. Having just spent an exhilarating year living in Russia, next term the professor who introduced me to it at summer school will teach me modernist literature. It all came full circle.”
Selection will take account of an applicant’s GCSE performance within the context of the school they attended, and the overall academic performance of students at their current school or college where they are studying for A Levels. Elements of the Oxford application system will also be replicated, for example flagging up candidates in care, or from less affluent backgrounds.
Thanks to a generous donation from the Helsington Foundation, Oxford is offering more free summer school places than any other university in the UK. The University ran Sutton Trust Summer Schools for twelve years, offering 386 places in July 2009. By 2014, it will offer 1,000 places representing every Oxford degree course.
UNIQ participants will benefit from an online community site that will allow them to correspond with one other and with staff before the summer school takes place. This facility will also be available after the summer school has taken place, so students can keep in contact, and staff can further support students when making their university applications.
Mike Nicholson, Director of Undergraduate Admissions at the University of Oxford, said: “Summer schools are a great way of introducing young people to university life, and laying to rest some of the myths about Oxford. We are delighted to offer more places in 2010.”
The Helsingon Foundation has pledged £3.25 million to fund the summer schools until 2014, as well as funding several new outreach initiatives the University undertook with school and college teachers in 2009. These include Regional Teachers’ Conferences, and work with Oxford PGCE students and new graduates who were preparing to take part in the Teach First programme.
Applicants to the UNIQ Summer Schools will need to complete an online form, including a personal statement outlining their commitment to their course. Applications close on Friday 12 March 2010.