Uni Pathways

Deliver university-style learning based on your PhD

To enable you to use your research to have the maximum effect in your school you’ll deliver our Uni Pathways programme alongside your main classroom teaching. Uni Pathways is a two-year programme that you will design to support a small group of pupils to increase their chances of attending a highly-selective university.

You’ll work with your school to select a group of year 9 pupils (13-14-year olds), at least half of whom come from backgrounds typically under-represented at high-selective universities. You’ll then deliver a series of university-style tutorials to them based on your PhD which, alongside support with their normal school work, will enable your pupils to develop their subject knowledge and confidence.

You’ll create a pupil workbook which you will use to structure your tutorials. As your tutorials are based on your PhD, you will tailor pupils’ learning to your field of expertise and have the freedom to make the course your own. This will allow you to introduce pupils to subject matter outside the curriculum whilst helping them become familiar with university terminology and marking structures.

How can I see the impact of my work?

Throughout the programme, our research and impact team will help you track the progress of the pupils you work with, allowing you to see the tangible impact you have on their studies. To do this, you’ll use a combination of pupil self-evaluations and assignments set by you, tracking your pupils’ progress beyond school and onto higher education.

The Uni Pathways Workbook

The workbook is a critical part of Uni Pathways and a great opportunity for you to create a unique, challenging scheme of work tailored precisely to your academic studies.

Past titles have included:

“The development of the existentialist world view”
“How do we combat antibiotic resistance?”
“Can we do more with less?”
“River science is rising like a flood: fluvial hydraulics, physical processes and sensor technologies”

“Uni Pathways has quite clearly encouraged a more positive attitude towards physics. It has allowed the students to further their learning on telescopes. Since the launch of Uni Pathways this year, we have spent an evening at a prestigious university, a trip to the Royal Observatory and a conference call with Dr Liz Bartlett at ESO Santiago… All the students involved in the Uni Pathways course have thoroughly enjoyed it… there is a strong sense of pride amongst them.”
Aoife Meenan

Subject Mentor for Physics, Parliament Hill School

"The Uni Pathways course gives the students a unique opportunity to work on an individual project that they can take real ownership of. The students get to access subjects beyond the curriculum and see their teachers in a new light. The girls have loved having the chance to speak to experts from ESO and to independently research an astronomical object of their choice. One has even decided that she might like a career in astronomy when she leaves school!"
Dr Catherine McEvoy

2016 physics participant