Undergraduates Mentor at Pembroke’s Access Week 2018

In this article, Graham Mogridge (Philosophy, Politics & Economics, 2016) and Elizabeth Oladunni (History and Politics, 2015) reflect on Pembroke’s 2018 Access Week:

Earlier this month, Pembroke, as it has for the past 10 years, welcomed over a hundred state-educated students for a week-long summer school. The week was subdivided into various components, with courses taking place in the Humanities, Sciences, and Theology. For the Humanities and Theology students, the summer school represented the completion of a year of hard-work which had included a series of school-based seminars, a study day, and an Easter course - all aimed at widening academic horizons, and raising aspirations. There were also students who attended as part of The Ordered Universe Project (an interdisciplinary project focused on the work of a medieval scientist). The project is largely a collaboration by Oxford and Durham Universities. Alongside the students from London, the North West and North East, attending sessions were also students who had made the journey of over 4,500 miles from rural India with the support of the Karta Initiative.

The week itself was packed with both academic and social activities. Notably, there was an options board for students which comprised of a series of lectures that ranged from ‘Causation in Criminal Law’ to a medicine talk on ‘Albinos and their mis-wired brains’. These options allowed students to get a taste of other subjects outside the stream they had signed up to for the summer school. Aside from that, students were invited to an Oxford Formal Hall, a classical music concert, and were taken on tours of various Oxford colleges.

The week was primarily focused on giving students a taste of undergraduate life at Oxford, and demystifying the experience of studying at the University. The students were set an essay question, or, for the scientists, tasked with designing a poster at the start of the week by a postgraduate tutor. This piece of work was due to be submitted at the end of the week before their tutorial session, when the students attended two-on-one or one-on-one sessions with their tutors.

The level of effort and brilliance shown by the students was celebrated at the end of the week with an awards ceremony, where many students were gifted with certificates and prizes for their hard work. Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Education), Professor Martin Williams, was there to present the awards, ending the Access Week on a high.  

Participating students showed a high level of interest and engagement and Pembroke will continue working with these students through ‘The Access Platform’ which provides mentoring and guidance for those interested in applying to Oxford. A cohort of ‘Pembroke Scholars’ will also be selected for further support at Pembroke in September. We hope to see the excellence we saw amongst this diverse range of students translated into the student body itself in the near future!

As undergraduate students at Pembroke we are deeply proud to have been involved in the week, and hope that this tradition continues for many thousands of students to benefit from in the future decades to come.