Leeds Beckett University visit – 14th March

Students at The Stephen Longfellow Academy in years 9 and 10 had little or no knowledge about University and Higher Education.

Raj Gill (TSLA Careers Adviser) established links with Leeds Beckett University widening participation team and set up a bespoke visit for Y9 and Y10 Students to visit the University. A visit was arranged for the 14^th March 2018, 10 -12:15.  Students would have a short presentation, team building practical activities, a tour of the campus facilities and would be supported by University staff and student ambassadors throughout the visit.

Students were engaged prior to the visit and asked what were their thoughts about going to University and were asked to complete a simple questionnaire.  The data is represented in the chart below. It shows that prior to the event students had either never thought about university 33% or were not sure about it (don’t know enough about university) 50%, only 1 student had thought about going to University 17%.

Results
The visit was clearly successful and the students engaged with university ambassadors and staff, Students asked questions:
“How much do we have to pay to go to university?”
“What courses can we do here?”
“How long are the courses?”

Students enjoyed the experience, especially the tour and participated well in the activities (Tower building game and Higher Education cards challenge).  On arrival back at TSLA students the completed the remaining questionnaire. The data can be seen in the chart below. It shows that there has been an increase in the percentage of students now thinking about University. Fantastic to see that students were inspired and said “University is like investing in ourselves.” 67% of students say they may go to university and 33% said they want to go.