A WORLD OF KNOWLEDGE

Oxbridge Academic Programs was founded in 1986 to offer bright, curious students an immersive learning experience in some of the world’s most vibrant intellectual and cultural settings. The program offers over 150 academic and creative courses taught by university teachers and professionals across five cities—Oxford, Cambridge, Paris, Barcelona and New York. Students have the opportunity to dive deeply into subjects they’re passionate about or explore new academic interests, while experiencing a university environment.

Since 2015, St Peters has invited responsible and mature Year 10 students who exhibit a passion for learning and have a strong work ethic and academic record to consider engaging in the Oxbridge Academic Program. The program begins during the Australian mid-year break for Year 11 students and extends into early Term 3. Students are exposed to university-level material and take lessons in the surrounding cities rather than traditional classrooms. Each participant completes a final project, receives an assessment and is issued a report card. The experience is often life-changing, boosting participants' independence, building confidence and sparking inspiration.

After a hiatus since 2019 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, six St Peters students participated in the Oxbridge Program this year. All achieved excellent grades in their subjects. They especially enjoyed meeting other students from across the globe and immersing themselves in Oxford, Cambridge and London.

Following are excerpts from their reflections on their Oxbridge Academic Program experiences.

Hannah Richards – Business Management, University of Cambridge

In my Business Management course, I learnt very beneficial lessons in entrepreneurship, sales, marketing and even game theory. Having classmates from all over the world allowed for unique perspectives on every topic and exposure to different cultures. The freedom we were given was also an aspect that I loved. Except for attending class, the rest of your day was up to you to plan. Experiencing university overseas has left me with a desire to study abroad in future educational endeavours, and to work hard at school so this may be possible.

Samantha Briones – Medical Science, University of Cambridge

My time at Cambridge was filled with lots of lasting memories. Over my time, I managed to make multiple friends from around the world. I was surprised how close I could get with people in such a short amount of time. I attended the Medical Science course. It has been a dream of mine to study medicine. In this course, we studied anatomy and conducted surgery (e.g. various stitching methods, dissecting, etc.). I am very grateful for the opportunity.

Beatrice Arnold – Marketing & Communications, University of Cambridge

One of the highlights was the incredible friendships I formed with people from all over the world—Turkey, the USA, Brazil and South Africa. Exploring London was a major highlight, especially visiting the Museum of Brands, which tied in perfectly with the Marketing course I was enrolled in. This visit allowed me to see the practical applications of what I was learning and furthered my understanding of marketing's historical context. The marketing course covered topics like omni and multi-channels, communication mix and advertising strategies. Applying this knowledge to case studies, presentations and even creating our own brands complete with logos, ads and slogans was both challenging and rewarding.

Maya Markovich – Law, University of Cambridge

I was fortunate to study the Law program, which was incredibly interesting and handson. My favourite part of the class was the close bond we all formed, with the help of our amazing professor, who organised fun activities for us such as visiting the Magistrates Court in London. One of the most memorable aspects of the program was the opportunity to work on the mock trial. This experience allowed me to apply the legal theories we had been studying in a practical environment under time pressure. Crafting arguments, cross-examining witnesses and presenting my case before a panel of peers and instructors was both challenging and exhilarating.

Luca Kendall – Architecture, University of Cambridge

I studied Architecture at Cambridge University in the lovely Jesus College Campus. Our class arguably had the best London excursion. Completing 15,000 steps by noon, we visited nine famous buildings in London as each student prepared a speech about the building the night before. It was an amazing way to see central London with its amazing blend of old and new architecture. Our final project was to design a library pavilion in the first court at college. The second week focused on libraries, visiting several libraries around Cambridge from the Law Faculty Library designed by Norman Fosters in the 90s to the Wren Library designed by Christopher Wren in the 1600s. We built scale models of the court and our buildings using Styrofoam and drew sketches of our buildings to showcase at the end of the two-week program.

Charlton English – International Law and Philosophy, University of Oxford

I very much enjoyed my four-week stay in Oxford, a beautiful old university town. My International Law course was a jolly time. I got to experience a taste of tertiary education which revolves more around discussing content than learning content which was expected to be done in your own time. International Law is quite interesting as it blends law, politics and debating into one subject. I was able to participate in debates around the legitimacy of NATO’s attack on Kosovo and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. For the final project my team and I prepared a debate where we represented China's perspective on the legitimacy of invading Taiwan. We won.

Article by Jacquelene Estevao, Careers Counsellor