For the first time, Northern Ireland and Wales have been formally included as venues on the regular round of regional Cambridge and Oxford Conferences which take place annually in Spring.  The Lagan Valley Island Centre in Lisburn will be the venue for the Northern Ireland Event on 2 April, while the International Arena in Cardiff is the venue for the event in Wales on 25 March..

The Conferences are free events aimed at students who’ve taken their GCSEs and who are considering their Higher Education options. Cambridge and Oxford strive to recruit the brightest and best students regardless of background. The Conferences programme is part of that drive, developed over a number of years, with events for example, in Scotland, Newcastle, Merseyside and London.

This year the programme has been extended to include Northern Ireland, building on long-standing contacts established by Corpus Christi College, Cambridge.  It also includes a venue in the heart of Wales for the first time - previous conferences having been held in Welsh border counties. 

David Foster from Banbridge is an example of how those links have helped pave the way to admission. As a sixth former at Banbridge Academy he was encouraged to apply to Cambridge by his experience at an annual residential summer school run by Corpus Christi for Northern Ireland students. Last October he started studying Law at Cambridge University:
“When I came to Cambridge last autumn, I was glad that my college, Corpus Christi, had formed strong links with Northern Ireland via their Northern Ireland Initiative where a Fellow from the College comes over into schools to deliver talks about life at Cambridge and the process of application.
The Initiative also organises a Summer School for sixth form students from Northern Ireland to go to the college and study their chosen subject for a few days. I found it extremely valuable in allowing me to soak up the atmosphere of the city, the college and life at the University in general.
I’d urge anyone looking at their HE options to head for Lisburn and find out just how friendly and accessible these universities are.”
The Oxford and Cambridge conferences are designed to provide up-to-date information on the application and admissions procedures at both institutions as well as giving attendees an idea of how both universities’ College systems work and what being a student at Oxford and Cambridge might be like. There’ll also be a chance for students to find out more about subjects such as Medicine, Law, History, English and Engineering in short 45 minute taster sessions.

For full programme details and booking please follow links at right of page 

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