As a partner of the First-Generation Scholars scheme, you can choose from a wide variety of activities that are tailored to your pupils’ ages and interests, from experiencing a university style lecture in their chosen subject through to talking to current Sussex students, and from individual school campus visits, through to bigger events that are open to a number of institutions.
Everything in the scheme is aimed at helping young people – many of them with no family history of studying at university – to learn more about higher education and decide whether it’s the right choice for them. We cater for many year groups so please spend some time exploring these web pages to ensure you don’t miss anything that would be of benefit to your students and institution.
Use the links below to download our Activities Brochure for 2012-13, and a wall planner with upcoming dates for subject specific activities. Further clarification of the types of activities on offer are below, and for more details and description of subject specific activity please see our Activity Descriptions pages.
Activities Brochure [PDF 4.65MB] WP Events Wall Planner [PDF 315.83KB]
Demand for activities is high for all of our activities, so it is a good idea to book as far in advance as possible – simply contact participate@sussex.ac.uk with details of the events you are interested in and we’ll be back in touch.
Campus Visits
Student Life Taster Days
Subject Specific Taster Events
Student Shadowing
Summer Schools & other
Outreach (in-school/college support)
Campus visits
Popular with all year groups, these visits consist of a student-led tour and talk that focuses on what it’s like to live and study at university. There are a number of higher education information, advice and guidance workshops you can choose from to include in your visit. As with all of our activities, the visits are focused on informing pupils about higher education in general rather than ‘selling’ Sussex.
Student life taster days
Similar to above, these taster days will give your pupils an insight into life as a university student and will typically involve a tour and a talk led by a current student. However, there is also an opportunity to include one or two subject tasters, with the primary purpose being to offer insight into university style teaching and learning as opposed to the sole purpose of enhancing knowledge and understanding of a particular subject (for subject specific taster days with more focus on the subject in question, please see below).
Student Shadowing
Student shadowing is an opportunity for year 12 or 13 students from our partner schools and colleges to spend a day with a current University of Sussex student studying a subject of interest to them. They will join him/ her in an actual undergraduate lecture, workshop or seminar and will be shown around campus, the department and facilities, and talked through (over lunch) the students’ experiences, both in terms of the teaching and learning methods of their degree, and student life in general. To ensure that all students who are interested are able to take part, we will refund the travel costs involved in travelling to the campus, and we will even provide the lunch!
Shadowing will be offered between November 20th and November 30th, and again in late February 2013, so if you would like to take part please email Anne-marie Bird – a.bird@sussex.ac.uk – with the subjects your students are interested in shadowing.
Subject Specific Taster Events
Including conferences, taster days, facility visits plus longer, more intensive programmes, the subject specific taster events present another opportunity for students to get a glimpse of life at university, with the chance to focus on a particular subject and get involved in interactive classes and workshops. The visits can help with pupils’ current studies, enhancing their knowledge and understanding of a subject, strengthening their grasp on relevant topics or critical thinking and analysis, and also demonstrating the subject as it is presented in a higher education environment. The visit may help students to clarify their options for future study, making reasoned and informed decisions to support their long term study and career goals. Time and programme permitting, you can also add campus tours and other activities to your visit. Please see our Activity Descriptions pages for further details of our subject specific events.
Summer Schools and other high-impact programmes
These courses tend to be intensive and take place over weeks or longer – they give pupils the chance to really get to grips with a particular subject or gain an in-depth understanding of what higher education can offer them. They include year 10 and year 12 summer schools for July and August 2013 respectively, an Aiming for Law programme for students in year 12 -13, and a Media & Film Critical Skills programme. Further details of these events will be circulated to WP Coordinators within our partner schools and colleges in due course, with further details published within these web pages.
Outreach (in-school/college support)
Staff and trained students ambassadors within the Widening Participation team at the university are available upon request (depending on availability and practicalities) to deliver IAG talks and presentations within schools/colleges. This may be to small groups or classes, or to year group assemblies. Talks might include;
- GCSE subject awareness
- ‘Why go to university’
- ‘Student life’
- How to write a good personal statement
- How to choose a course and university
- Student finance
- HE subject awareness talks by senior student ambassadors
We are also able to send representatives to support IAG events, including HE fairs, Parents Evenings, Careers fairs etc.