Pembroke host special dinner for the 10th anniversary of the Pembroke Access Programme

Pembroke College recently hosted a special dinner to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Access Programme at Pembroke. The programme launched in 2009, spearheaded by Dr Peter Claus - the University of Oxford’s first Access Fellow. Staff, students, Alumni and Fellows gathered together to celebrate its success throughout the years, and its continued legacy.

The event took place on the 1st March and was extremely successful, with many early graduates from the access programme in attendance, who have gone on to pursue a wide range of interesting careers.

Pembroke Alumnus, Ed Durbin, who was involved in the Pem-Brooke London outreach scheme in its early days, gave a short speech on the success of Pembroke’s Access programme. Ed first joined the Pem-Brooke outreach scheme as an undergraduate mentor, then as a post-graduate tutor and later, as the dedicated driving force on the staff of BSix, Oxnet’s first hub in Hackney. He commented: “Peter’s programmes have never lacked focus. At the centre of everything – from the summer schools, to the lectures, to the subject centres – there has been the keenest focus on subject enthusiasm and expansive thinking.

As an alum of the Pembroke access programmes, and someone who has carried on working in schools, that’s what I think I carry with me still. It’s a philosophy I try to carry into the lessons I teach and the plans I draw up and it’s why I’m delighted to be here tonight to celebrate 10 years of this immensely valuable project. Thank you.” 

Beginning as a summer school in Humanities for East End students, OxNet has grown to include pupils interested in pursuing a variety of subjects, from over 60 schools in three different regions of the UK, many of which have had little prior engagement with Oxford University.

Below are some of the comments from Alumni and current students who came to Pembroke through the Access programme.

"If I hadn’t had the Access programme, I don’t think I ever would have had the courage to pick up the application form.” - Aswathy Mohanaprakas

“My friends always highlight how much I go on about Pembroke North, and how many aspects of my life would be different without it.” – Victoria Lewis

“Even if I had applied to Oxford, and gotten in, the only reason I applied to Pembroke was because of the Access programme.” – Dan McAteer  

"Whenever I walk past Pembroke I think… that’s where it all started.” ­- Maryam Watson

[The Pembroke Humanities and Social Sciences Programme] “has been the most influential aspect of my academic life – without it I would not have gone on to achieve some of the things I am proud of the most today.” - Barkhad Yusuf

For more information on how to support our Access and Outreach initiatives, please visit our crowd funding page here.