Our partnership with The Access Project charity brings a proven, strategic and evidenced-based approach to widening access and participation in Higher Education, developed in several other English regions, but new to the North West. The programme supports young people from under-resourced backgrounds and involves four schools in Cumbria and Blackburn with Darwen: Workington Academy, The Whitehaven Academy, Darwen Vale High School and D6. Queen’s is building this partnership because we want to tangibly improve access, both for the benefit of bright individuals, wherever they live, and for the public good, continuing with the ethos of our founders.
How does it work?
The approach is simple: a programme of sustained one-to-one contact between pupils and tutors who not only provide additional teaching in specific areas, but also raise aspirations and inspire pupils to think beyond school and aim high. This contact comes at a crucial time in pupils’ learning and decision-making and produces transformative results. We know that one-to-one teaching works because the tutorial system is the bread and butter of our undergraduate teaching. And using this approach to support youngsters in gaining places at top universities works: the students on the programme are twice as likely to get a place at a top university compared to similar students not on the programme.
Our partnership in the 2024/25 academic year
In the 2024/25 academic year, we have been delighted to visit Workington Academy to deliver an interactive workshop to Year 12 students about university and course choices, and making competitive applications to selective universities. We have also welcomed Year 12 students from The Whitehaven Academy, Workington Academy, and D6 to Queen’s in person for an overnight residential visit in March 2025; they learnt more about life as an undergraduate at Oxford through taster tutorials, meeting current students, and staying in student accommodation. In June 2025, we welcomed Year 10 students on The Access Project programme at Darwen Vale High School to a taster day at Queen’s. They gained insight into how teaching and learning at university is different from school through interactive taster sessions and learnt about life at university by chatting to current Queen’s students. We have thoroughly enjoyed hosting our partner schools this year!
Since September 2025, we have already visited The Whitehaven Academy to deliver a ‘Thinking Like an Oxford Student’ critical thinking workshop to a very engaged and creative Year 10 and 11 group. We also collaborated with colleagues at the Department of Chemistry to deliver an exciting lecture demonstration at The Whitehaven Academy. We look forward to building on our partnership over the remainder of the academic year.
