University projects

The first project funded by the Sutton Trust in 1997 was a university project, and since then we have funded many projects linked with higher education institutions, not just concerned with widening participation, access to the professions and teacher support. We have worked with a large number of higher education institutions across the UK, and are always interested in working with new partners.

The Trust currently runs annual summer school programmes at five leading universities: Bristol, Nottingham, St Andrews, Oxford and Cambridge.

Following a grant from the Goldman Sachs Foundation, the Trust built on the summer school model to develop a more sustained initiative, known as the Academic Enrichment Programme, at the Universities of Birmingham, Nottingham, and Manchester.

In 2006 meanwhile the Trust launched with the College of Law the 'Pathways to Law' scheme providing help for law students from non-privileged backgrounds.

The Academic Enrichment Programme

In 2006 the Trust secured funding from the Goldman Sachs Foundation to run the Academic Enrichment Programme which will ultimately benefit 1,000 students over three years at Birmingham, Manchester and Nottingham Universities

The programme is modelled on the Trust's Masterclass scheme at Durham University, which have been running since 2002. The purpose of the scheme is to raise the aspirations and achievements of able young people from non-privileged backgrounds, by offering sustained support over a longer period of time.

The Academic Enrichment Programme will begin with a one-week summer school, followed by revision sessions, leadership training and personal development programmes. Participants will also be paired with an undergraduate student mentor who will provide on-going support and advice.

The programme is targeted at Year 12 students whose parents have not been to University and are in non-professional occupations.The first cohort of students attended the summer schools in July 2007.

University specific information on the programme is available from these sites:

• Birmingham
• Manchester
• Nottingham

Pathways to Law

The Pathways to Law programme is a joint initiative between the Sutton Trust and the College of Law, the leading educational charity for the legal profession. The programme is further supported by the leading law firms.

The programme is designed to attract fresh talent to the legal profession by targeting students from state schools who will be the first in their family to attend university, and whose parents are in non-professional occupations. It is aimed at schools which have a higher than average proportion of children on free school meals and very little history of sending young people to higher education.

The Pathways to Law programme is based on Pathways to Professions programme that has been running at University of Edinburgh since 2003. The need for this initiative is further supported by the Trust's 2005 survey on the educational backgrounds of the UK's top lawyers, which found that three out of four top judges, more than two-thirds of top barristers and more than half the partners at leading law firms had been educated at private schools, which account for 7% of the school age population.

The programme starts with the selection of eligible students when they are aged 15-16. It will offer participants careers advice and guidance on university applications in the sixth form, provide mentoring at school and university, and introduce them to contacts in the legal world, which will lead to invaluable work experience and placements with law firms and barristers' chambers.

It is intended that the scheme will reach 750 students a year by 2010. If all the Pathways students were to gain training contracts they would form about 12.5% of the 6,000 solicitors who start the next stage of their training each year.

University specific information on the programme is available from these sites:

• Leeds
• London School of Economics
• Manchester
• Southampton
• Warwick

Summer schools for teachers

Teachers on Track
The Teachers on Track conference was run for the first time in 2004, at the University of Durham, to improve teachers' knowledge of their subjects, improve their professional development and provide an update on higher education guidance.

Science teachers from state schools took part in a three day residential programme on the latest thinking in physics and chemistry. Participants reported that the conference was very useful both in improving their subject knowledge and in helping to develop stronger relationships with the university. We were pleased to support the expansion of this project in 2005.

Back to top