Daniel Powell, Head of Outreach and Communications at New College, Oxford, shares an introduction to Oxford University’s school outreach work, including an opportunity to join the college’s own Step-Up-Programme.

Founded by William of Wykeham in 1379, New College is one of the oldest constituent colleges of the University of Oxford. Occupying a large site in the centre of the city, the college is a diverse and welcoming institution which is made up of roughly 430 undergraduates and 360 graduate students. We are looking forward to hosting a NACE member meetup next month on the theme “Rethinking Assessment”, and to working with NACE on future projects.

How is outreach organised at Oxford University?

Oxford University operates a regionalised approach to its outreach work. Each broad region of the UK will have a dedicated consortium of colleges, who hold responsibility for delivering outreach opportunities to schools in those regions. The central university team will also support schools in certain parts of the UK. You can read more about the regionalised approach to outreach here.  

New College is excited to be part of the consortia responsible for outreach provision in Wales. If you are a Welsh state school and are interested in finding out about how New College and the Wales Consortia can support your school, then please do get in touch via oxfordcymru@admin.ox.ac.uk

What outreach initiatives does New College offer?

Since its foundation in the 14th century, New College has been a pioneer for outreach work. As one of the few Oxford colleges to have a motto written in English, rather than Latin, we have always wanted to be known as an institution that is available and accessible to all, regardless of background.  In the last few years, the college has been able to expand the work that we do and we now have a team made up of Daniel, Shelby (the College’s Outreach Officer), and Stephen (the College’s Outreach Fellow).  

In 2020, we formed the Oxford for Wales Consortia with St. Catherine’s College and Jesus College, to support the University in its regionalised approach to outreach. Daniel and Shelby, as a South and North Walian respectively, are aware of the potential barriers that Welsh students may face when considering Oxford, and are extremely keen to support Welsh teachers, students, and parents in any way that they can.

In addition to regionalised work in Wales, New College also delivers its own sustained-contact initiative, the Step-Up Programme.

What is New College’s Step-Up Programme?

Launched in 2017, New College’s Step-Up Programme is a sustained-contact initiative that is designed to inspire and support state school students throughout Years 11, 12 and 13. It is a non-regionalised outreach initiative with state schools and sixth form colleges from across England and Wales currently enrolled on the programme. Broken into a series of steps, the programme aims to ensure that students with high academic potential recognise that Oxford can be an achievable and realistic goal.   

After beginning in a pilot phase with nine schools in 2017, the programme has gradually grown and New College currently works with 30 state schools and sixth form colleges across England and Wales.  As a fully funded programme, there are minimal costs for schools, and sessions take place either in a school setting or at New College.  

As we recognise that applying to Oxford can sometimes feel like an overwhelming prospect, each step of the programme focuses on a different aspect of the application process. We aim to dispel myths, reassure students, and support schools, so that Oxford University begins to feel like a realistic and achievable ambition.

With a group of New College students to support and offer their own ideas and advice, our outreach team works with schools to break down the barriers that students may be concerned about, providing them with the ‘step up’ they might need.  

If you think that New College’s Step-Up Programme would benefit your school and students, you can read more about the programme on the New College website.

How can schools join the Step-Up Programme?

We are potentially looking to expand the Step-Up Programme. If you would like your school to be considered, please register your interest by emailing stepup@new.ox.ac.uk. Interested schools should be state-funded 11-18 schools or state-funded sixth-form colleges.  

Find out more… Visit the New College website, or follow our Twitter (@NewCollegeOx) or Instagram (@newcollegeoxford) accounts for regular updates about life at New College, Oxford.

Plus... We look forward to meeting some of you in person at the NACE member meetup on 23 March 2022. Read more and register here. 

When it comes to Oxford and Cambridge, there are still many perceived barriers that can deter students from applying – and may deter others from encouraging them to do so. For school and sixth-form staff involved in supporting students with university applications, Oxford’s Dr Matthew Williams is keen to break down some of the myths…

My name’s Matt Williams, and I’m Access Fellow at Jesus College, Oxford University. “Access Fellow” means I’m an academic, and I’m also responsible for helping to open up the university to more aspiring applicants. This listicle picks apart some of the myths I hear in schools when I’m out trying to encourage young people of all backgrounds to apply.

1. “Oxford is socially exclusive.”

There’s a common perception that Oxford is socially exclusive and unwelcoming. It’s not true.

Let’s break down the myth. In 2016 59% of offers went to students from state schools. So a comfortable majority of offer-holders, and Oxford entrants, were educated by the state, and not in private schools.

The university and its colleges offer generous financial support to those who need it. For instance, in 2018, up to 175 incoming students will be offered a Moritz-Heyman Scholarship to provide them with bursaries for living costs, and money off their tuition fees.

Oxford’s intake is more diverse than is commonly portrayed. Of those who declared their ethnicity from 2014-2016, 18% of offer-holders were from black and minority ethnic backgrounds. In 2017 the university made more offers to young women than men.

We only make admissions decisions on the bases of academic ability and academic potential. We’re not judging candidates on where they went to school or what they look like. All are made very welcome in Oxford.

2. “Oxford is expensive.”

Tuition fees at Oxford are the same as other universities in the Russell Group – that is £9,250 per year. And those fees can be reduced for students in need of help. The university and its colleges have squirrelled away money over hundreds of years, precisely so it can be invested in bright young people who could most benefit from it.

Plus, you get a lot of bang for your buck at Oxford. We not only have exceptional facilities – including over 100 libraries – we also use the highly effective tutorial system. Students are taught in tiny groups of about two or three, usually twice a week, for their whole degree. This level of personalised attention from academic experts just isn’t possible at most other universities. Even medical students enjoy tutorials, alongside the more normal lectures, seminars and lab sessions you’d find at other universities.

Only Cambridge also operates tutorials (called supervisions there) as comprehensively as Oxford. Even the best US universities cannot usually match the tiny class sizes at Oxford.

3. “It’s impossible to get in.”

No. Roughly one offer is made for every five applications we receive. Some subjects – including medicine, law, economics and management, and engineering – are more competitive than one in five, and the applicants we receive are highly accomplished. But the point is that we do make a lot of offers – around 3,200 to undergraduates. And most students I speak to in schools woefully underestimate their own academic abilities.

4. “You have to be a genius at Oxford.”

I’m not sure what genius is, but let’s unpack this myth. You don’t need to have perfect school grades, nor an IQ of over 150 to be considered. Our offer holders do, it’s true, usually have very good grades from school. But we’re not looking for a flawless academic record. Most of our degrees require AAA at A-level (38 IB), not A*A*A*A*. Some of our degrees, such as chemistry, call for A*A*A, but for none of our degrees are students required to have straight A*s at either GCSE or A-level.

And a very high IQ is also not required. Many of our degrees use admissions tests to assess problem-solving and critical thinking skills. But we also interview about three candidates for every place, so that we can also assess motivation, passion and intellectual bravery. By bravery, I mean a willingness to think independently, and not just follow the herd. Those with perfect school grades and high IQs sometimes lack passion and independent-mindedness, and that can weaken their applications.

5. “The application process is scary.”

Our application process is longer than for most other universities. We ask applicants to submit their UCAS forms by 15 October, then there are admissions tests for most of our degree courses, then we conduct interviews in early December, and our decisions are sent out in early January.

It’s the tests and interviews that really seem to give potential applicants cold feet. But it’s not our aim (nor in our interest) to scare off applicants. The aim of our admissions process is to make best possible decisions. We collect a lot of information on each of our applicants so we can choose the very best from an excellent pool. As I wrote above, we don’t just look for perfect grades, we also want to consider the context in which applicants secured their school grades, and we want to gauge their potential to stretch themselves beyond the school curriculum. This all takes time and effort.

We want our applicants to be themselves, and at ease. Yes, taking admissions tests and attending interviews can be intellectually demanding, but it’s also very good practice for job seeking, and it’s character building!

Put it this way: deciding not to apply because the application process is a little more demanding is not a good reason. Far better reasons for not applying would be that the courses don’t suit, or the applicant would rather live and study somewhere else.

6. “It’s boring, no fun, and full of geeks!”

There are literally hundreds of clubs and societies at Oxford. Both the university and the colleges have societies for music, drama, sport, and much else besides. Each college has a packed diary of social events that will suit pretty much every different taste.

On average students will spend around 40 hours a week studying, which still leaves lots of time for fun, friends and extracurricular activities.

7. “Cambridge is for sciences, Oxford is for humanities.”

This is a myth several centuries in the making. Cambridge has had several luminary scientists such as Sir Isaac Newton, Crick and Watson, and Stephen Hawking amongst its members.

But Oxford is no scientific slouch. Stephen Hawking took his undergraduate degree with us, as did Nobel-laureate Dorothy Hodgkin. Further back, Oxford had Robert Hooke and Christopher Wren as students – both co-founders, in Oxford, of the Royal Society.

Oxford University has invested over £400 million over the past 10 years into its science facilities and infrastructure. One of our newest facilities is the Beecroft Building, a state-of-the-art laboratory and teaching facility for the Department of Physics, which will create a space for discussion, collaboration and cutting-edge science.

And, as for the present day, Oxford is very highly ranked amongst the world’s universities for its scientific teaching and research. Apart from anything else, in sciences and all else besides, there are plenty of fantastic universities in the UK, not just Oxford and Cambridge.

8. “Oxford is arrogant, and doesn’t care about its reputation.”

This is the worst myth of them all. Oxford’s strengths come from its students and staff. The pretty buildings, the money and the history are nothing without the people who daily make the university great.

So, we care deeply about opening the doors to the brightest and best, regardless of their background, personal wealth, skin colour, religion, sexual orientation and so forth. We therefore invest enormous amounts of time, money and effort to ensure that Oxford is open to everyone with academic ability and potential.

Some groups are still under-represented in our academic community and we want this to change. If you agree, then please encourage your students to apply and contribute to helping is make that change. Oxford can only be what its students make it.

Please feel free to contact me via @jesus_access or matthew.williams@jesus.ox.ac.uk

Dr Matt Williams is the Access Fellow of Jesus College, Oxford University. That means he is an academic, and works to open up the university to students from under-represented backgrounds. He came to Oxford in 2006 to take his Masters and Doctorate in political science. He has since held lectureships at seven Oxford colleges, and has written on uses of language in politics.

Sources:

• https://www.ox.ac.uk/about/facts-and-figures?wssl=1
•  https://www.ox.ac.uk/about/facts-and-figures/admissions-statistics/undergraduate?wssl=1
•  http://www.ox.ac.uk/admissions/undergraduate/fees-and-funding/oxford-support/moritz-heyman-scholarship
•  https://public.tableau.com/views/UoO_UG_Admissions2/EthnicityandDisability?:embed=y&:display_count=yes&:showTabs=y&:showVizHome=no
•  https://www.independent.co.uk/news/education/education-news/oxford-university-more-women-students-female-accepted-men-first-time-history-a8178626.html
•  https://www.ox.ac.uk/research/libraries?wssl=1