Oxford University is committed to encouraging as wide a range of applicants as possible. Oxford Mathematics is part of that commitment. But what does that mean in practice? Well over the Summer months it means UNIQ, Oxford’s way of breaking down barriers and building bridges. A kind of construction work for the mind.
Over the last two weeks, ninety students from schools around the country have visited us in the Mathematical Institute on the UNIQ Summer Schools. These summer schools offer an impression of what it’s actually like to study Maths at Oxford. Places are given to students who are doing well at school, who are from areas of the country with low progression to university, or from low socio-economic status backgrounds. So far, so good, but what do they actually do?
Well, the week consists of taster lectures and tutorials, and, crucially, plenty of opportunities to talk about maths, both with each other and with our team of student ambassadors. Lots of the students say that meeting other people who are interested in maths is the best part of the summer school; for some of them, no-one else at their school or sixth form is as keen on maths as they are, (a refrain that persists well beyond school of course).
During the week the students have had a fascinating series of talks on topics including Benford’s Law, the Twin Paradox and the game theory of the TV show The Chase. But they have also been working together on group presentations on their favourite topics in mathematics and they’ve been working together modelling projects - open-ended problems which they’re free to approach with a variety of methods which give them an insight in to how maths actually works and enables them to spend time trying out different ideas, a luxury they may not get at school.
For example, groups have been comparing strategies to tackle malaria, investigating refraction, and optimising a bridge network. We use these projects to give the students an impression of what tutorials are like; each group has a half-hour tutorial on their project with a member of our faculty. By giving the students a first-hand experience of studying at Oxford, we can break down some of the myths, and make the whole system more transparent.
As well as giving the students a taste of the mathematics that they might study, the UNIQ summer schools also give the students a chance to experience life in Oxford. They’ve been staying in St. Anne’s College and New College, where they’ve had a quiz night, a scavenger hunt and a ghost tour, before a party on the last evening. Life in Oxford is not so different to anywhere else.
Throughout the week, the students have been helped and guided by a fantastic team of ambassadors, who are all current students or recent graduates of Oxford. One of the signs of success of the UNIQ summer schools is the high application rate to study at Oxford from UNIQ students on the summer school, and some of the ambassadors were themselves previously on UNIQ summer schools as students.
Thank you to everyone. There is much to be done, but in some not so small part of the mathematical world, progress is being made.
--
Photography by Ian Wallman