Event report: Uni Connect Summer School
On Wednesday 8 June, 46 college learners and six staff members from Barking and Dagenham College and Havering Sixth Form College attended our Linking London Uni Connect summer school.
Middlesex University kindly hosted us for the day, enabling learners and staff to visit the university campus and view various facilities. The majority of attendees were first-year Level 3 BTEC/CACHE Health and Social Care students and most had not visited a university in person before. The aim of the day was for students to experience a university campus as well as gain a better understanding of the breadth of higher education courses available in the field of health and social care.
Learners and staff went on a campus tour, viewing Middlesex's nursing and midwifery VR suite, the healthcare science suite, and the library while hearing from Middlesex student ambassadors. In addition to the campus tour, learners attended three sessions delivered by university staff from Middlesex, University of Greenwich, and Birkbeck, University of London. These sessions covered topics such as how to decide which courses to apply for, UCAS application advice, and an overview of the kinds of extra-curricular opportunities on offer at university.
A student ambassador Q&A concluded the day, with ambassadors from Middlesex, Greenwich, and New College of the Humanities answering questions from learners. Hearing from current students, studying subjects such as Mental Health Nursing, as well as a recent Midwifery graduate currently employed as midwife within the NHS, was clearly of great benefit to the students.
A college staff member who attended described the summer school as 'a brilliant trip for our students' and stated that staff and students 'got so much from the day'. Our thanks go out to the college staff members and Uni Connect College Engagement Coordinators who ensured learners were able to attend, to our university partners for their contributions, and to the learners who attended in spite of the early start needed to travel across London.