Making Oxford accessible: inside the university's outreach programme

An Oxford education is undoubtedly one of the greatest privileges the British education system has to offer. The chance to pursue esoteric academic disciplines, chat about life with internationally renowned thinkers, and prance around sixteenth-century castles dressed in black tie is an experience that most people will never be able to access.

Oxford can feel like an unattainable alien world to students from humble backgrounds. Oxford’s various widening participation programmes aim to change that.  Schemes run by the admissions office and OUSU debunk myths about higher education and encourage students to raise their aspirations. The schemes aren’t necessarily aimed at future Oxford undergraduates; the university hops that the students targeted will move on to some form of higher education.  

“Widening participation work is about changing attitudes and perceptions first and foremost”, Oxford’s Media Relations manager Julia Paolitto says. “We are getting pupils to engage with higher education generally, or perhaps thinking about continuing education in some form even if it’s not a university.”

Compass is one of the university’s most innovative schemes. It is aimed at secondary school students who have caring responsibilities at home and hopes to smooth the their transition into higher education. The young carers are given workshops in essential skills and can even receive study tips and revision tutorials from current Oxford students. The scheme, which was set up in 2010, is currently celebrating its first successful Oxford undergraduate admission.

 

Volunteering as a student guide is one way that current Oxford students can contribute to the widening participation programme. Students can also get involved in OUSU’s Target Schools initiative. The scheme offers students the opportunity to be shadowed by a sixth former who is interested in applying to the university.  The half-day observation gives the hopeful a chance to gain first-hand experience of Oxford’s idiosyncratic structure.

Volunteering opportunities also exist within the university’s widening participation team. It is possible to take part in one-day programmes that target either secondary or primary students. Subject taster days give students the chance to delve deeper into a subject they are considering studying at university. Schemes aimed at primary aged students aim to teach the children about the language of university and the opportunities available there.

There is also the chance to take part in longer residential programmes. The popular “murder in the cloisters” weekend is targeted at Year 9s. Pupils spend a weekend in college and try to find clues and solve the case using interviews and forensic techniques taught by members of the university. The scheme helps to introduce secondary pupils to the vast array of subjects on offer at university.

The disparate nature of the schemes on offer makes it difficult to quantify the impact they have had on countless young people. “Because most of the students taking part in the programmes will be several years off thinking about university”, Julia says, “it’s hard to say for certain whether the decisions these students make several years down the line, or the results they attain several years later, are the result solely of our intervention. But we do survey alumni of our programmes and track their higher education outcomes, and generally the indications point towards our programmes having a very positive effect on student ambitions, attainment and attitudes towards higher education.”

Interested? If you are passionate about boosting the life chances of disadvantaged children, want someone to take your notes for half a day, or are simply interested in playing murder mystery then consider getting involved in one of OUSU’s schemes. Your Saturday afternoon could give someone else the chance to study in the city of dreaming spires.