OPEN DOORS
A New Gateway into Cambridge The Cambridge Foundation Year Programme is the University’s new, one-year, fully-funded residential programme for students who have faced educational disruption or disadvantage. The programme recognises that academic achievement is a function not just of a student’s ability, but also of their circumstances. While we are under no illusion that this programme alone will right the wrongs of inequality, it represents an important step toward making Cambridge an inclusive place of study, and Girton has been there from the start, with Bye-Fellows Shyane Siriwardena and Marieke Dhont
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riting now, in the summer of 2023, it is hard to believe that it was less than a year ago that we welcomed the first Cambridge Foundation Year cohort over the threshold, in the beautiful Stanley Library here at Girton. For a week, we and the 47 students were surrounded by images of pioneering women, and the symbolism was not lost on any of us. What better place to inaugurate the Foundation Year than a college with a unique history of championing the education of the disenfranchised? To begin their journey, students on the programme undergo a rigorous admissions process. After they submit their initial application form, those who are shortlisted are invited to complete a further test as well as two separate admissions interviews. Once on the programme, students complete an intensive year of study designed to prepare them for study at undergraduate level. Each week, they have approximately three hours of lectures, three hours of supervisions, and six to nine hours of seminars. This is in addition to the time spent on independent study, completing readings and writing supervision assignments. Students also undertake a series of assessed coursework essays and a short dissertation of approximately 5,000 words, in addition to an end-of-
year exam. In other words, the Foundation Year is a crucible of learning for these aspirational young people. Despite the demands of the programme, many of the students on it this year have been very active in their colleges and beyond. They have been members of their JCR committees, have competed in college and University sports, have been active in national politics, and much more besides. We are so proud of the way that our students have thrown themselves into university life, both academically and otherwise. Students on the programme get the opportunity to explore a wide range of topics, spanning a variety of subjects in the arts, humanities and social sciences. They have taken papers on, for instance, data and policy-making during the Covid -19 pandemic, an interdisciplinary study of King’s College Chapel, the poetry of Generation Windrush, and language in the age of the Internet. The benefit of this approach has been that we teach academic skills in an integrated and interdisciplinary way, so that our students are as ready as they can be to transition to the first-year undergraduate programme of their choice. The programme’s breadth has also enabled students to explore disciplines they have never encountered before. Indeed, while most students
The Year
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