Successes in access and outreach

Mansfield has long been a leader among Oxbridge institutions for its work in access and outreach. The results are especially gratifying, reports Sarah Large, McBain Access Officer, when students who attended our outreach programmes go on to attain a place at our College.

The 2022/23 academic year has been my first at Mansfield and it has been a brilliant one. As I’m writing this, I have received a card from a teacher thanking me for hosting a group of Year 12 students at the College last week (as happens each year), commenting: ‘We always feel very warmly received and welcome’. Such praise is earned by the commitment of our wonderful student ambassadors, academic staff, and administrative staff, without whom my job would be considerably harder. The community at Mansfield makes me confident that the students I meet would genuinely thrive and enjoy their time here if they chose to apply to our College.

The past year has been busy, with the continuation of regular school visits to Mansfield, outbound trips to Yorkshire & the Humber and South London, the University-wide Open Days, and the return of our annual Further Education and Sixth Form College Open Day (which started more than 20 years ago). Alongside this established access work, we are always looking to expand and enhance our provision to make a positive impact on as many students as we can.

I am particularly proud of the successful pilot of a three-day residential programme for Year 12 students from Yorkshire & the Humber, which ran in March 2023. A total of 49 students from 18 schools across the region participated in the event. The programme offered them the experience of living in Mansfield undergraduate accommodation, dining in the Chapel Hall, and engaging in academic workshops. Current students were on hand to answer questions about what being an Oxford undergraduate is really like and to guide the students around the University and the city. The aim of the residential was to provide students with the knowledge to make an informed decision about applying to Oxford, as well as showing them how to make a successful application if they did choose to apply. We had lots of positive feedback following this event, but one particular response to a question we asked really stuck with me: ‘What have you learnt during this visit?’ ‘That Oxford is for me.’

Facilitating sustained contact programmes with schools in our link regions has been a major focus of ours this year. Sustained programmes help us to build relationships with schools and their teachers as well as students, making it easier for both to feel confident asking for help and sharing what they need from us. This year I began the ‘Next Steps’ programme with three of our Yorkshire & the Humber Further Education Colleges – John Leggott College, Wilberforce College, and Franklin College. The programme includes an introduction to Oxford, an insight into university-level learning, and guidance on the application process. We would love to expand this programme to cover more schools in our link regions and potentially create a longer programme that spans multiple year groups.

Commenting on ‘Next Steps’, David Cooper, Aspire Leader at John Leggott College, Scunthorpe, has told us: ‘As the students are becoming more familiar with Mansfield, and yourselves in particular, we can see their confidence growing as they become more comfortable with the environment and process.’ David goes on to explain that the programme is not only helping students see admission as a realistic prospect, but that the question ‘Do I stand a chance?’ is ceasing to be relevant.

The academic year 2023/24 is looking even busier than the last for access and outreach. We have recently formed a partnership with a local Oxford primary school, St John Fisher in Littlemore, through the Oxford Hub’s Twinning Programme. The goal of this initiative is to address the attainment gap that exists in Oxford city. Each class will have a visit to Mansfield during the year and a group of our students will provide weekly tutoring to the school’s Year 6 class.

In addition to working with the local community, we aim to enhance our relationships with departments across the University to facilitate subject-specific outreach. This will give prospective students an insight into their subjects at university level, expose them to unfamiliar subjects and encourage them to pursue these fields of study at Mansfield.

In October 2023, I helped to welcome the new freshers to Mansfield, some of whom I had met previously at our annual interview workshops (we host these each year in the regions we work with to provide interview guidance and support to students who have applied to Oxford or Cambridge). It is so rewarding to see students who we work with arrive at Oxford and even more so when it happens to be at Mansfield. I am looking forward to meeting plenty more students this year who have the potential to excel at our University.

Achievements from 2022/23

165 access visits + over 4000 students seen