In July, the University of Kent held a four day residential Summer School organised by the Partnership Development Office, with 59 year 10 students attending from several different partner schools across Kent and Medway. The participants had a chance to experience university life through a series of academic and social activities that reflected those that a university student would partake in. The group resided in Rutherford College throughout the duration of the week and this gave them an insight into what it might be like to live in student accommodation.
Students also had the opportunity to follow a strand of academic sessions in either Humanities, Social Sciences or Sciences. This allowed them to explore subject tasters relating to their chosen faculty that are not necessarily on the school curriculum, an example being Architecture. Alongside this, students engaged with the ‘Your Future, Your Choice’ module which encouraged them to consider decisions they have already made such as GCSE options. Students were then able to speak to university ambassadors who answered questions and gave support with researching for post-16 qualifications. One student stated that the sessions ‘helped me to decide what I wanted to do in the future’ indicating that they were beneficial in helping students to make informed choices.
The evenings reflected the social activities that are on offer to current university students which included a variety of society tasters and a meal out in Canterbury. Feedback from the Summer School was extremely positive, with a large amount citing that they enjoyed ‘experiencing the subject tasters and electives’ and ‘meeting new people’. Many also stated that they are now considering pursuing higher education following this experience as they had a better understanding of university life.
For more information about this activity, please contact outreach@kent.ac.uk