Summer School

Main idea

The Summer School gives prospective students the opportunity to participate in an immersive academic and social programme. With a key emphasis on the student becoming familiar and comfortable with the UCD campus, to support aspirations and in turn starting to visualise life in higher education.

Outline

5th Year Summer School 

Each summer UCD Access & Lifelong Learning hosts a residential summer school which gives fifth-year school pupils from linked schools and organisations a chance to meet other students who aspire to go to university. During this programme, participants have an opportunity to experience college lectures, undertake project work in a chosen subject, and enjoy a variety of the social and sports activities available to UCD students.

The Summer School is open to all pupils who are taking part in the Future You Mentoring Programme in UCD linked schools. There are always more applicants than available places so when assessing the applications we pay particular attention to 

1) the Personal Statement section of the application form and

2) attendance and participation in Future You activities so far. It is understood that each applicant will be eligible for alternative college admissions routes, i.e. the Higher Education Access Route (HEAR scheme) and/or Disability Access Route to Education (DARE scheme).

The UCD ALL 5th Year Summer School is free, however, some small costs must be covered by the participants;

• Travel to and from  UCD 
• Breakfast on each day 
• Drinks / snacks each day

Over 4 days the students are given an opportunity to get a head start on preparing for college by undertaking a subject based project, while gaining a first-hand experience of student life through academic workshops and a varied sports and social programme. This programme has approximately 54 places. 

UCD Access & Lifelong Learning works alongside our Access Leaders to assist with the coordination and delivery of this programme. These students stay on campus for the duration of the week and chaperone the pupils for the duration of the week. An Access & Lifelong Learning staff member will liaise and work with the senior leaders throughout the week of the summer school to ensure all activities are running according to plan. There will be 5 leaders in total, including 1 senior leader and one qualified second level teacher as the coordinator working on this programme. 

One of the key features of our Summer School programme is that it allows current Access Leaders to work with second level pupils who are thinking or hoping to progress to higher education. The relationship between the two groups is central to this programme and is based on a partnership approach that gives young people the space and opportunity to develop and explore their options in a non-formal educational manner. 

Summer School Leaders offer essential support and guidance to the young people by listening and chatting to them, telling them about college life and participating and assisting in the organisation of a range of activities throughout the summer school programme. 

A sample timetable is included in the resources section below.

For the project work students choose between four subject areas: 

• Social Sciences                                                                                                                              
• History                                                                                                                          
• Computer Science Sparks                                                                                                         
• Business      

Our Summer School programmes fall under our Student Experience/Mentoring activities and have been a prominent feature of our outreach programme over the past decade.

Goals

• Students make friends with other people from a similar background who aspire to study at third level
• Students are aware of their options for study at third level
• Students are more confident in their ability to progress to third level 
• Students become familiar with the UCD campus and how to navigate it 
• Provide information, guidance and support
• Provide student experience
• Support students’ aspirations

Target group

• Students experiencing obstacles based on ethnic-cultural differences
• Students experiencing socioeconomic obstacles
• Students with (mental) health problems
• Students experiencing educational difficulties
• Students experiencing geographical obstacles
• Students from other communities
• Students with caring responsibilities
• Students from non-academic backgrounds

Obstacles targetted:

• Disability
• Economic obstacles
• Migrant background obstacle
• Social obstacles

Students involvement

Access Leaders (Current Students) are involved in the co-design and delivery of some aspects of the Summer School Programme including ice-breakers/team building and other social activities. They also run the student panel. They are given an opportunity to contribute to aspects of the programme in advance, throughout the week, and after the week.

Inspiration and evidence

The purpose is so that students from linked DEIS schools can experience university life with students from a similar background with similar aspirations and see university as a realistic goal.

Success criteria

• Students who attend the summer school are more likely to apply to UCD than the Future You mentees who do not attend. 
• They know the campus well and have made friends from outside their school who they connect with again when they accept their place in UCD. 
• Students leave having made new friends and are more confident in their ability to attend third level.
• Contribution of Access Leaders.
• Residential component.
• Time for social activities in addition to academic project work.

Points of attention

It is administratively demanding so it would be very important to have someone to co-ordinate the summer school.

Effectiveness

Yes, continuing to work with students throughout their final year in school and continuing to provide information and support on applications to HEAR/DARE, scholarships, financial support, etc. 

When applicants are part of the Future You Mentoring programme we follow up with them approx. 20 months for information on what they have decided to do after school.

Do you feel you can effectively provide the support that students require?

We strongly agree.

Would you recommend this to other institutions?

strongly agree

Evaluation

• Post-programme survey for participants and Access Leaders. 
• Opportunity for all contributors to provide feedback by email and for ALL staff who work on the project. 
• Feedback has informed the activities and detail provided in college workshops and training provided to Access Leaders. 
• Feedback informs planning for the following year’s summer school programme.   
• In previous years we completed a pre and post survey to gauge their experience, in general this survey highlighted that the participants felt more confident in terms of transitioning to UCD.

Communication

Through Guidance Counsellors network at Linked DEIS Schools.

Timing

Generally takes place in the second week in June. This works well as students have recently finished school.

Day information

After regular ‘school’ hours.

Resources

• Outreach Officer
• Operational support team
• Organisation, time management, ability to manage large groups, communication (with students, parents/guardians, teachers, tutors, UCD Student Centre, Sports, hospitality, Residences).
• Laptops, stationery, food.
• approx. 3 months to prepare.

approx. €23,000

Extra information

• https://www.ucd.ie/all/news/newsstories/futureyousummerschool2019/
• Summer School Timetable (pdf)

Transferability

We think it is easily transferable to other contexts or groups.

It would be good to get buy-in from schools and pay academic tutors to run engaging taster lectures, workshops and project work. It could be good to start with a smaller number of schools who are really interested, and it does not have to be with linked schools, it could be opened to other schools but with criteria to target students that are generally under-represented. 

There is a lot of administration involved so you have to be mindful of this, student access leaders are crucial and a co-ordinator that works well with young people and is able to manage them. We have hired teachers before for this but it is important that the person has an aptitude for working with young people. Participants also need to change groups regularly so they have the opportunity to meet a variety of different people and make friends. 

Important for students to be assigned to different small social/activity groups to get to know more participants.