Cambridge is reaching out to more potential students than ever before, with the Widening Participation team planning five Oxbridge conferences, over 50 school visits over the next few weeks, as well as the Young Black and Asian Achievers (YBAA) challenge.

Kicking off on Wednesday 5 March, over 10,000 students are expected to travel to the Oxbridge conferences, which are taking place at Sandown Park racecourse (5 March), Manchester United (14 March), Cheltenham racecourse (21 March), Newcastle United (28 March) and Leicester City (4 April). In response to the demand for places, an extra conference has been planned to reach all schools who wish to participate across the UK. Students will find out about applying to the universities from undergraduates and admissions tutors.

At the same time, Schools Liaison Officers based in the Cambridge Admissions Office will be speaking to over 2,500 teenagers in March and April, through visits to schools and group visits to the University.

Rosemary Butcher, Head of Cambridge's Schools and Colleges Liaison / Widening Participation Team, is keen for people to realise how hard the team are working to raise aspirations towards higher education in general and Cambridge in particular:

"There are now a huge number of initiatives in place, across the University and Colleges, which aim to attract more student applications from groups who are currently under-represented at Cambridge. Both staff and undergraduates are going out into schools and colleges to get the message across that we welcome applications from the best students, whatever their background.

"The Oxbridge conferences and our schools visits are both key parts of our wide range of aspiration-raising initiatives, and are a great way to speak directly to young people to dispel any myths and misconceptions they may have about the University."

In addition to the five Oxbridge conferences, separate Oxbridge Forums have been organised this year specifically for students from Further Education (FE) colleges. Many FE colleges have no experience of sending students to Cambridge or Oxford and the aim is therefore to provide practical advice on applications and interviews from FE and mature Access students who are currently at the Universities. The forums will be taking place in the West Midlands (18 March), in Yorkshire (21 March) and in Cornwall (31 March).

On Sunday 9 March, over 100 teenagers from ethnic minority backgrounds will be in Cambridge to take up the Young Black and Asian Achievers (YBAA) Challenge. The annual Challenge event is designed to raise the aspirations of the 13 to 15 year-old students and give them a taste of undergraduate life at Cambridge.

The teenagers will be set three challenges which will test their skills in journalism, science/engineering and problem solving.

Fran Kerridge is the co-ordinator for GEEMA (Croup to Encourage Ethnic Minority Applications), part of the Schools and Colleges Liaison and Widening Participation Team, who is organising the event in conjunction with undergraduates at Cambridge:

"We hope that the kids will enjoy a fun-packed day, but more importantly, that they and their teachers will take home with them the message that Cambridge is a place where students from all backgrounds are welcomed and can thrive."

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Licence. If you use this content on your site please link back to this page.