University receives £50,000 for 'widening participation' projects

The University of Southampton has received £50,000 from the Sutton Trust, a charity that provides educational opportunities for young people from non-privileged backgrounds, to support its initiatives to widen participation in higher education.

The University's innovative Widening Access to Medicine project will receive £10,000. This project aims to give potential students from less advantaged backgrounds a chance to experience life as medical students, and to raise their awareness of medicine as a possible career. The grant from the Sutton Trust will be used to run day schools for year 10 schoolchildren, and short residential conferences for year 12/13 students. The funding will also help to set up a mentoring scheme through which students who go on to study medicine at Southampton will be supported by current students and qualified doctors.

A further grant of £40,000 will enable the University to run a one-week residential summer school for potential students from local further education colleges in July. The "FE2HE" Summer School, as it is called, is a collaborative project with other universities including Bath, Imperial College and Surrey.

Richard Kennett, the University's Widening Participation Co-ordinator, said: "I am delighted that a national organisation such as the Sutton Trust has recognised the work that the University of Southampton is carrying out to widen participation. This funding will underpin the outreach work being carried out by New College, as well as allowing us to strengthen our links across the University with local schools and further education colleges."