Ethnic minority pupils get up to speed on Cambridge applications

Rishi, 16, who lives in Cambridgeshire and goes to Hills Road Sixth Form College, hopes to be the first in his family to go to Cambridge. Lateef, 17, who came top of his year at a Hackney comprehensive, plans to do a degree in philosophy or social sciences. Shashendri, 17, who lives in Bedfordhsire and whose favourite subjects are art and maths, wants to be an architect.

All three are keen to learn more about Cambridge and are considering making applications, if their AS results are good enough.

Last week’s event gave visiting pupils the opportunity to ask questions in a supportive environment and to meet current Cambridge students from similar backgrounds. Formal presentations provided them with useful information and tips on the applications process; informal interaction with undergraduates helped to show them that Cambridge is accessible to all with academic potential.

Aya Satta, 17, one of 11 pupils attending the event from Ellen Wilkinson School for Girls in West London, said this was her first visit to a university. Interested in studying chemistry, she said she would definitely be applying to Cambridge as it was the “best place in the country to study science”.

Like many of the other girls in the group, she speaks several languages on top of English as her father is Turkish and mother is Iraqi. Both her parents were “pushing hard” for her to succeed. “It’s really helpful to have a day like this that enables us to ask lots of questions,” she said.

Ellen Wilkinson pupil, Roza Sheikani, 16, whose family originate from Kurdistan, has lived in 12 different countries and missed two years of school before she was ten. Neither of her parents had the chance to go into higher education. Now that Roza is doing well academically, it is her family’s “dream” that she goes to a top university.

“I’m interested in psychology and social sciences and I’m here to look at the opportunities Cambridge has to offer,” she said.

Participants were given tours and lunch at one of three colleges - Trinity, Trinity Hall and Sidney Sussex. Sitting in the dining hall at Trinity College, Lateef said that the food was good but that the grandeur of the surroundings was hard to reconcile with the more utilitarian environment of Leyton Sixth Form College in East London.

“It’s hard to take in that this is where people live and eat from day to day, and that they just get used to it,” he said.

Lateef had begun to think about applying to Cambridge after doing well in his SATs in Year 9, and had achieved the best GCSE results in his year at his Hackney comprehensive. But he was concerned that his GCSE results would not be “good enough” to make him a viable Cambridge candidate.

In a session later in the open day, Lateef and other participants were reassured by Richard Partington, Senior Tutor at Churchill College, that their results would be viewed within the context of overall school performance and that Cambridge admissions tutors are looking for a strong upward trajectory that proves growing academic maturity.

Lateef said: “When I woke up at 6 am this morning I had to force myself out of bed, as it would have been so easy not to come to Cambridge. I’m the only one from my college to be here today. I’m really glad I did as it’s made me determined to apply if my AS grades are good enough.”

Shashendri, who came to the UK from Sri Lanka when she was five and is doing A levels at Manshead School in Caddington, already feels at ease in Cambridge; she took part in the Cambridge University Students’ Union shadowing scheme in February, a scheme that enabled 260 state school pupils to experience student life at Cambridge.

She said: “I shadowed an English student at Newnham College and that showed me how varied Cambridge students are. Unless you come to visit Cambridge and get the chance to talk to people here, you tend to think it’s one of those places that are not for people like you, as it’s the product of hundreds of years of tradition.”

Among the ten current undergraduates helping with the event was Katrina Ffrench (pictured above in Cambridge t-shirt) who is in her second year studying Social and Political Sciences at Hughes Hall. Katrina dropped out of sixth form twice before returning to full-time education to take A levels at a further education college in London.

“I spent much of my day encouraging pupils to believe in themselves and not to be deterred by stereotypes. Events like this are really worthwhile as they enable ethnic minority pupils to meet people like them and hear that it’s possible to get into Cambridge and enjoy life here,” she said.