The Brilliant Club. The University of Sussex is a founder partner university of The Brilliant Club, a charity which exists to increase fair access to selective universities by recruiting, training and placing PhD students in low HE participation schools to deliver programmes of university-style learning to small groups of high-performing pupils aged 9-18 years. The University of Sussex has a specific responsibility for helping develop The Brilliant Club’s Widening Participation Programme, including trips that give pupils a real sense of the intellectual and physical environment of a university. Through these trips the pupils engage in a range of learning activities, including study skills sessions and tutorials, as well as outreach activities including campus tours, engaging with undergraduate students and information, advice and guidance sessions. This is an innovative and ambitious programme reaching thousands of pupils, with the aim that 80% of Year 13 pupils will apply to a highly selective university, 70% will achieve grades of ABB or higher in their A-Levels, and 55% will secure a place and go on to study at a highly selective institution. The programme has been further expanded to include large-scale Brilliant Club Launch events and Graduation events for students from Years 5 to 13, with 2246 participants visiting the Sussex campus in 2014-15. Nine Sussex PhD students were also recruited to support the in- school activities organised by the Brilliant Club; this is an area for improvement for 2016-17. Realising Opportunities The University of Sussex is a member of Realising Opportunities (RO), a unique collaborative partnership of research-intensive universities, developing and delivering a national fair access scheme which promotes social and geographic mobility for students from under-represented groups. Realising Opportunities has a robust evaluation framework which incorporates contextual data, student aspirations and the tracking of students through the HEAT database and UCAS. The award-winning Realising Opportunities programme, developed through shared best practice, provides support for students through interventions designed to raise aspirations, develop skills and enable them to demonstrate their potential to succeed at a research-intensive university. These interventions are offered locally and nationally and include a National Student Conference, ongoing support and encouragement from a trained student e-mentor and an academic assessment element. Successful c...
The Brilliant Club. The Brilliant Club, an education charity, recruit, train and place doctoral researchers in state schools serving low participation communities to deliver programmes of university-style tutorials. We help the charity to recruit tutors from amongst our postgraduate student body and host four events at SOAS as part of the Brilliant Club package of interventions. These events will comprise of some of our own typical outreach activities such as campus tours and taster classes alongside aspiration raising content delivered by Brilliant Club staff. We will continue collaborating with third sector organisations such as these in 2016/17.
The Brilliant Club. The University of Sussex is a founder partner university of The Brilliant Club, a charity which exists to increase fair access to selective universities by recruiting, training and placing PhD students in low HE participation schools to deliver programmes of university-style learning to small groups of high-performing pupils aged 9-18 years. The University of Sussex has a specific responsibility for helping develop The Brilliant Club’s Widening Participation Programme, including trips that give pupils a real sense of the intellectual and physical environment of a university. Through these trips the pupils engage in a range of learning activities, including study skills sessions and tutorials, as well as outreach activities including campus tours, engaging with undergraduate students and information, advice and guidance sessions. This is an innovative and ambitious programme reaching thousands of pupils, with the aim that 80% of Year 13 pupils will apply to a highly selective university, 70% will achieve grades of ABB or higher in their A-Levels, and 55% will secure a place and go on to study at a highly selective institution. The programme has been further expanded to include large-scale Brilliant Club Launch events and Graduation events for students from Years 5 to 13, with 2246 participants visiting the Sussex campus in 2014-15. Nine Sussex PhD students were also recruited to support the in- school activities organised by the Brilliant Club and this work will continue to be developed. Our work with the Brilliant Club also contributes to our most able, least likely strand of outreach work.
The Brilliant Club. In order to ensure careful targeting we have worked in collaboration with third sector organisations who have established meaningful and long term relationships with young people from under represented backgrounds. One example of this is our work with The Brilliant Club, an education charity, who recruit, train and place doctoral researchers in state schools serving low participation communities to deliver programmes of university-style tutorials. We help the charity to recruit tutors from amongst our postgraduate student body and will host four events at SOAS as part of the Brilliant Club package of interventions. These events will combine some of our own typical outreach activities such as campus tours and taster classes alongside aspiration raising content delivered by Brilliant Club staff. We will continue collaborating with third sector organisations such as these in 2015/16.
The Brilliant Club. As part of our commitment to longer-term outreach, The University of Manchester is working with The Brilliant Club7 to widen access to highly selective universities for underrepresented groups. This initiative mobilises researchers to bring academic expertise into state schools and places doctoral and postdoctoral researchers in schools and sixth form colleges to deliver programmes of university-style tutorials to small groups of pupils. Working with pupils from key stage 2 through to key stage 5, this initiative targets pupils at non-selective state schools. Through our partnership with the Brilliant Club, pupils visit the University over the course of the programme, and receive information, advice and guidance sessions about higher education. The experience supports pupils to develop the knowledge, skills and ambition that help them to secure places at the UK's leading universities. We will continue to strengthen this partnership with the Brilliant Club and extend these opportunities to even more learners in 2017/18.
