Top university for social mobility set to inspire primary pupils

Released: 23.05.17

As part of its mission to encourage more young people to consider Higher Education, Plymouth Marjon University is hosting an event to inspire primary school pupils.

By inviting children onto campus from a young age, it begins to ‘normalise university’ for them from a young age as a legitimate option, according to Kari Eilertsen, Widening Participation and Outreach Officer, who said:

“Sadly we do come across some young people who aren’t exposed to much careers advice, who are not taken to UCAS fairs by their schools, who don’t have enough resources to support students to write personal statements and applying for courses. So our programme of events, mentoring schemes, workshops and summer schools aims to help schools meet that need.

“By talking to them from a young age and making university a place that’s fun to visit and learn in, wecan sow a seed of thought early on, that there are a wide range of options in life ahead of them.”

Marjon’s approach has a good success rate for engaging young people who are not considering university. On average its widening participation and outreach team works with over 5000 students a year from Year 6 through to Year 13.

It remains the top university in the UK for social mobility (UK Social Mobility Index 2014), an underlying ethos which has been at its core since Marjon began nearly 180 years ago. It’s founders believed in educating the poor to become teachers, rising from the streets of London into the colleges which eventually merged and relocated to Devon in the 1970s.

This week, over 60 year six pupils will be given a taste of university life during the ‘Raising Aspirations’ event which includes an inspirational talk from a BBC Home Affairs Correspondent and author, Simon Hall. They’ll spend the day on campus and take part in a range of fun sessions around music and sport.

Raising Aspirations takes place on Thursday 24 May at Plymouth Marjon University along with students from Ford Primary and Mount Tamar School.