Generating Genius Degree Taster Day 2024

This year-long programme, a collaboration between Generating Genius, Oriel College, and St John’s College Cambridge, supports students with Black African and Caribbean backgrounds from low-income households to make competitive applications to STEM degrees (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) at the University of Oxford and the University of Cambridge.

This was the third event of the programme for participating students, who had already had a virtual Subject and University Discovery Session and an Application Preparation Day at Salesforce Tower in London. For the Degree Taster Day, Oriel welcomed the STEM@Oxbridge students interested in pursuing Physics and Engineering, while students interested in other subjects attended an equivalent day at St John’s, Cambridge. After starting the day with a fun ice-breaker quiz, students split off to attend subject-specific taster sessions led by Dr Philipp Grunewald and DPhil student Domenic Peake, in Engineering and Physics respectively. These sessions provided a taste of what university teaching might be like, and offered the chance to work through the type of problems that applicants could be presented with at interview. In the afternoon, students had the chance to quiz Grunewald and Peake in a Q&A session, which covered topics including admissions test revision, life as an undergraduate Oxford student, and routes into postgraduate study. To finish the day, the group had a tour of Oriel College, followed by a quick trip through the city for a tour of Worcester College. In the glorious sunshine all the sites looked stunning, and the tours gave students the chance to learn more about life at the University of Oxford.

Generating Genius has been working in partnership with Oriel College since 2021, previously through the STEM@Oxford programme and now through the new STEM@Oxbridge programme. It is pleasure to continue working with their Uni Genius students, and we look forward to more events with the current cohort in the coming months.

Find out more about our Outreach work. Find out more about Generating Genius.