Access Report Lucinda Rumsey Tutor for Admissions Access work can be repetitive. Every year with a new generation of students we return to the same messages, strive to break down the same misconceptions. The most effective access work builds relationships with schools and students over time. As term starts Helen Brooks, our new Access and Admissions Administrator, is renewing contact with our schools in Kent and Yorkshire, setting up the annual round of activities. This will take her out to the schools, and bring the students back to Mansfield, building those relationships.
One of our long-standing relationships is with King Edward VI Sixth Form College, Stourbridge. In late June we hosted a residential for them at Mansfield. I have attended this residential (popularly known as Geek Camp) for a few years now, and it is usually held at a youth hostel near Stourbridge, but this year we brought 40 students and teachers to Mansfield. One of the benefits of residentials is that sixth formers move swiftly from awe to familiarity with their surroundings. Feeling at home in Oxford breaks down the first barrier to making an application.
Some of our work has considerable longevity. Helen Etty (Mansfield’s Academic Registrar and formerly Access Manager for Mansfield’s FE Initiative) has just run our 11th season of Open Days for FE and sixth form colleges. The students are a fresh group each year, but many of the FE staff attending are established and valued colleagues. In the teacher sessions our discussions about developments in university admissions and sixth form education are mutually illuminating.
In August we hosted a Social Mobility Foundation visit to Oxford (whose Programme Coordinator, Mansfield graduate Isobel Plant, is coincidentally a former student of King Edward VI Sixth Form). The Foundation aims to improve social mobility for young people from low-income backgrounds. We regularly take part in SMF’s Oxbridge workshops, hosted by Linklaters in London, but this August 150 students from all over the UK came to spend the morning with us. We gave a tour of the College and a talk on applying to Oxford. Feedback showed that two things
18 Mansfield 2013/14