Summer School at The University of Manchester

30 Jun 2011

The Deputy Lord Mayor of Manchester, Councillor Elaine Boyes, attended the closing ceremony of a three day summer school at The University of Manchester.

The Summer School was attended by more than 150 pupils from schools across Greater Manchester.

Summer Schools are an opportunity for pupils to get a flavour of what a university is really like and research has shown that this type of activity has the greatest impact on increasing the awareness and aspirations of young people. 

Working with current students, pupils experienced life as a “real student”; from attending lectures and workshops, to researching and preparing group presentations.

Pupils were also able find out about the many different course and careers they could pursue through participating in a wide range of interactive and exciting activities including making volcanoes, discovering philosophy and CSI Manchester.

The Summer School is part of an ongoing programme of activities for secondary schools called ‘Gateways’.  This programme is coordinated by the University’s widening participation team and focuses on pupils from families with little tradition of progressing to higher education.

Julian Skyrme, Head of UG Recruitment and Widening Participation, said: "The Gateways programme and Summer School are hugely important to the University’s goal to be an accessible and socially responsible institution.

"We know that bringing young people onto campus and enabling them to have a taste of what university is like has a significant impact on their outlook and supports them to make informed choices about their future."