Outreach

Outreach in numbers

We host visits from hundreds of students from under-represented backgrounds:

There are more than 60 committed staff working on access and outreach across Oxford University. Each college is linked to a region in the UK, and the schools in the region have a college contact, from whom they can request information, a visit or just get some advice on applying to Oxford.

Our colleges visit schools in all the regions and nations of the UK. More than 75% of all schools with a sixth form have contact with Oxford every year.

Last year our staff reached 3,100 schools across the UK. Our current undergraduate students also visit schools nationwide to talk about their experiences of Oxford.

Nearly 10,000 prospective applicants attend the OxfordCambridge student conferences each year, guided by 150 Oxford academics and Oxford’s student ambassadors.

We work with thousands of teachers: more than 2,000 teachers from 1,000 schools have attended our regional teachers’ conferences since 2009 and many more are invited to events in Oxford.

We seek out and honour Inspirational Teachers across Britain. The 欧洲杯滚球平台 has recognised 57 ‘Inspirational’ teachers since 2011 through our Inspirational Teacher Awards.

Oxford’s flagship access programme is the UNIQ summer school for state school students, which was recently expanded by 500 places. Our research shows that UNIQ students have a 34% chance of successfully applying to Oxford compared to the average UK rate of 20%.

The UNIQ Summer School targets students from state schools and backgrounds under-represented at Oxford. They spend a week in Oxford living in a college and learning about the life of an Oxford undergraduate. They take tutorials, lectures and some even take lab classes.

The programme is Oxford’s flagship access programme and in 2019 increased the number of places available by over 50%, from 850 to 1,350.

Students who come on UNIQ who apply to Oxford have a much better success rate than the average applicant. About 7,200 state school students have attended since 2010 and nearly 1,400 have gone on to become our students.

Our research shows that UNIQ students have a 34% chance of successfully applying to Oxford compared to the average UK rate of 20%.

Since the UNIQ summer school launched in 2010, more than 1,400 state school students have gone on to be offered a place at Oxford.

We support learning in schools. We have set up a free service for students called oxplore.org, packed with academic-based educational resources to fuel the curious minds of students aged 11 to 18. From departments and colleges, we offer a variety of study days for schools across a range of subjects, including Computer Science for Girls, Modern Languages, Women and PPE, Further Maths – What next?, FE and Sixth Form Open day and the list goes on.

The Annual Access Conference – launched in 2014 – led by Oxford’s student African and Caribbean Society, with the University, attracts over 150 British Black students from state schools each year. In 2015 a similar conference targeting students from British Asian backgrounds was launched and held in Slough – more than 100 students and their teachers and parents attended.

Our partnership with the organisation Target Oxbridge continues to thrive, and includes a three-day residential in Oxford for students of British African and Caribbean heritage, as well as ongoing mentoring support. 

The Target Oxbridge programme had 45 fully funded places in 2017, and in February 2018 Oxford and Cambridge announced funding supported by several colleges to grow the programme to 160 places in 2018. 

Now in its fourth year, the University’s delivery of the programme continues to thrive, with 27 Black and mixed heritage students that took part in the programme securing offers from Oxford this year alone. More black and ethnic minority students are choosing Oxford than ever before.

This year, Target Oxbridge had its greatest number of successes, with 35 Black and mixed heritage students securing offers from Oxford and Cambridge. This represents a success rate of 41% for those taking part in the programme – more than double the average success rate for all candidates.

Regional hub scheme OxNet aims to raise progression to selective and other universities. OxNet has 6 Hub schools in London and the North West, and a new Hub in Sunderland opened in 2017. The Hubs focus on the physical sciences (Cheshire), Modern Languages (London), Classics (East London), and Theology and Religious Studies (Greater Manchester), and aim to showcase the interest and benefits of studying these subjects. A Hub in Luton is working with younger students to show the benefits of starting at an earlier age to help realise aspiration and potential.

Oxford’s colleges and departments run a wide range of activities aimed at raising attainment and supporting applicants to Oxford.

For example, the University College Opportunity Programme offers additional undergraduate places to students from under-represented groups and offers them targeted support. The new places are filled through the University’s normal competitive admissions process, but are available only to students from disadvantaged backgrounds. They are also given support in the form of an intensive four-week bridging. programme in the summer before they start their degree.

The Lady Margaret Hall Foundation Year prepares students for under-represented backgrounds for undergraduate study at Oxford. The programme provides one year of fully funded expert tuition within the college to enable students with unrealised potential to go on and achieve undergraduate degrees either at Oxford or another highly selective university.

There are many other outreach events and more details can be found at ox.ac.uk/outreachevents