The College Record 2022

Reports and College Activities
We have continued our work as part of Oxford for the North West, working with
colleagues at St Peter’s, Corpus Christi and Pembroke in order to deliver webinars
to students from the region, as well as in-person in-reach events for current students
to help them settle in and find a community here. We’ve also enjoyed supporting
the work of other fantastic outreach programmes, such as Target Oxbridge and
Opportunity Oxford, and continued working with our colleagues in Cambridge,
going on road trips to deliver in-region events in schools and colleges in our shared
link areas.
The academic year ended with the return of in-person Open Days – after three long
years! With that came our first big residential event, with just shy of 100 Year 12
students and their teachers coming down from state-schools in the North-West and
staying with us at Queen’s for our Open Days Plus Residential Programme. It was
wonderful to see these students making the most of their time at Queen’s, taking
part in taster Tutorial sessions with our Tutors and Lecturers, asking lots of questions
of our Student Ambassadors, and enjoying the social side of life here too as they
participated in quizzes and punting trips in the evenings. Many of the students
reported that they felt much more confident about making an Oxford application
after the residential and that they recognised that they would be able to find a likeminded
community here, which is fantastic to hear. We will be keeping our fingers
crossed for them as they submit their UCAS applications – hopefully we will get to
see some of them matriculating at Oxford in Michaelmas 2023!
After over three years, I will be moving on from Queen’s at the start of the new
academic year to pursue a Masters in Higher Education at Oxford. I’m looking
forward to carrying out independent research and hope to spend time investigating
patterns of educational disadvantage in UK coastal schools and how disadvantaged
students’ rates of progression to highly selective higher education institutions are
affected by a coastal upbringing. I have very much enjoyed my time at Queen’s and
have loved working with prospective students and supporting them on their journey
to their post-18 choices. The best part of this job has to be seeing students who I
worked with when they were at school successfully navigate the Oxford application
process and see them now thriving as undergraduates at Queen’s – and representing
the College as Student Ambassadors on our Outreach programmes too! I am sure
that Access and Outreach at Queen’s will go from strength to strength and the
diversity of our future cohorts will continue to improve and represent the very best
and brightest students from all walks of life here at Oxford.
38 The Queen’s College | College Record 2022