Access Report

Welcome back!

Mansfield is renowned as a pioneer in widening access to elite universities. Our Access team was forced to switch all outreach work online during the pandemic, but now a hybrid model is being developed – and once again the College is hosting visits by prospective

students. Sara Harb (Kathleen Russ Access Officer) reports on a momentous year.

Throughout 2020/21, Mansfield’s outreach work has focused on sustaining relationships with schools and colleges within our link regions, supporting teachers and students, and working collaboratively across the University. We gained two local authority areas – North Lincolnshire and North East Lincolnshire – as part of our work within the regional consortia. After 18 months of virtual outreach (almost two-thirds of the time that I have been Access Officer at Mansfield), we are very much looking forward to the return of in-person events in our regions and to hosting school visits in College.

‘Over the summer of 2021, we had a taste of normality, hosting College tours for offer-holders and prospective students (with their family and friends). I am pleased to report that the automatic door into the main building, and the painted ceiling in the Library, continue to wow visitors. It has been great to be reminded of how special Mansfield College is and to be able to show it off again. ’

Over the summer of 2021, we had a taste of normality, hosting College tours for offer-holders and prospective students (with their family and friends). I am pleased to report that the automatic door into the main building, and the painted ceiling in the Library, continue to wow visitors. It has been great to be reminded of how special Mansfield College is and to be able to show it off again.

We ran more than 80 events for students throughout the UK during the year, and supported a further 30 functions by other colleges, departments and outreach staff from across the University. These included a particularly mammoth event run with the Social Mobility Foundation (SMF), attracting over 600 attendees.

We have continued to deliver some of our multi-school events, such as the York and South London Application Conferences, that bring students from different schools together to learn more about applying to Oxford and Cambridge. At these events, they are able to talk about their subject with other prospective applicants and our helpers. To keep the personal-statement workshops exciting, I have adopted the challenge set by Lucinda Rumsey (our Senior Tutor) and Helen Brooks (Mansfield’s Registrar) to try and link students’ random hobbies to their chosen subject. For example, if an applicant wants to study Medicine and they enjoy running and swimming, they might want to think about how the body moves differently in the different sports. This has become one of my favourite parts of these events, and although I have had some more difficult pairings – for instance foreign languages with Physics – I have always managed to find a (sometimes tenuous) link.

Our wonderful team of Student Ambassadors (old and new) have once again been key to the success of our virtual events, offering a relatable and lively insight into life at Mansfield, and Oxford, that can be hard to capture online. The new videos we recorded for the July Virtual Open Day encapsulate this perfectly – do have a look on our YouTube channel, Mansfield College Oxford. One of my fondest memories of the past year is of our Maths student helpers attempting to work through a problem via Zoom with a group of rather camera- and microphone-shy year-12s. Special mention goes to Dan G, Robin and Flora for their valiant efforts. We have also been heavily involved in developing one of the biggest collaborative projects to come out of the Oxford outreach community in recent times: the Remote Interview Workshops (RIWs) 2020. The RIWs were established in response to interviews being held online. They saw 2094 Oxford applicants participate in 118 workshops guided by 74 tutors or session leaders. The project was organised by a coalition of 33 colleges and department access and outreach officers. Interview workshops make up the bulk of our tasks in the autumn term and tend to work best when applicants can have subject-specific practice and an opportunity to talk about their subject with others.

These type of events were difficult to replicate online on a college-by-college basis due to resources and safeguarding, which is why the RIWs were such a valuable addition to the support we provide to applicants. Not only did they give information about the new online interview process for many of our teachers and students, but they also allowed students to take part in a session focused on typical interview questions for their course. The success of the RIWs means that they will become a permanent feature of the Oxford outreach calendar, and Mansfield can be proud of its part in developing this new initiative.

Looking forward, we are hoping to continue and expand our work with partners across the University. We are particularly keen to increase our collaboration with departmental outreach colleagues, to deliver more sustained subject-specific support to students. We intend to move towards a hybrid model of in-person and virtual outreach to maximise our resources and ensure that the service we provide is varied and effective.

‘We ran more than 80 events for students throughout the UK during the year, and supported a further 30 functions by other colleges, departments and outreach staff from across the University. These included a particularly mammoth event run with the Social Mobility Foundation (SMF), attracting over 600 attendees.’