Admissions Director’s report
Development Director’s report
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BY DR MARK KING
fter another year dominated by the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, I am delighted to write in hopeful anticipation of more normal times at the beginning of our first year as a standard-age (18+), co-ed College. We have now completed our first admissions round under our new admissions policy and, as I write, our incoming students are preparing to arrive
for our Undergraduate Bridging course in a few weeks. Without doubt there have been challenges along the way: from a fully online admissions round in the autumn, to the difficulties of managing a global group of offerholders whilst negotiating an ever-changing landscape of examination results, travel restrictions and quarantine policies. However, with the final numbers now confirmed, it is clear that the round has been a great success. We will admit 132 undergraduates this autumn, of whom around 60% - a clear majority – come from backgrounds that are either disadvantaged, or are underrepresented at Cambridge, achieving one of the goals to which we aspired when we first embarked upon our transition. Furthermore, the College is likely to have one of the most, if not the most, socioeconomically diverse intakes in Cambridge, with around 83% of our UK students coming from maintained sector schools, over 40% from the least advantaged backgrounds, and around one in four being part of the first generation of their families to attend university. Crucially, these figures have not come at the expense of the academic standards that are so important for success at Cambridge. Indeed, around 73% of our A-level offer-holders achieved three A*s or higher in their exams, so their academic credentials are beyond dispute. Within the team, there have been more changes, too. After a very busy year, Lucy Bunker leaves us for a role at the Clinical School of Medicine: she departs with our sincere gratitude for a job well done and very best wishes for her future. Caitlin Law has therefore made the step up to Undergraduate Admissions and Outreach Officer and Hayley Hilson has been recruited as our new
Outreach Officer. Hayley joins us after a first class degree in Linguistics at Homerton College and we are very much looking forward to working with her.
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ANNUAL REVIEW 2020/2021
BY JO RYAN
uring another year of uncertainty, the incredible support of the Lucy community has been wonderful, enabling us to remain fully focused on our mission. I would like to extend my thanks to you all for your continued interest, involvement and generosity in so many ways.
Amongst the projects Hayley will be managing are two exceptional initiatives. The first is an academic mentoring and tuition programme for offer-holders from disadvantaged backgrounds, which is run in partnership with the charity Causeway Education. 29 students were enrolled on this programme this year and we are delighted to announce that 85% of them went on to meet the conditions of their offer. The second is a new outreach programme of academic enrichment for students from
underrepresented backgrounds. This began at the end of July with an intensive six-week online summer school for Year 11 students. It will now continue throughout the forthcoming academic year with further classes to build key knowledge and skills, before culminating in an admissions-focussed follow-up summer school next August. Designed in collaboration with our partner schools, this will be our flagship initiative going forwards as we seek to support talented students to bridge the educational gap exacerbated by the pandemic. Such activities are only possible because of the generous donations we have received from alumni and other benefactors and we are especially grateful for this support during these challenging times.
2020-21 was an exciting year. Along with colleagues in other departments, our focus was on supporting preparations for our first mixed cohort of standard age students - our most diverse intake ever. The year began with much to celebrate, as the global College community gathered during LucyGives Giving Week 2020, raising funds to: • improve students’ first year experience through our Bridging Week and Student Lived Experience Research programmes; • expand Library collections in step with our growing student body; • provide 9 new Master’s studentships for students on interdisciplinary courses who demonstrate an appetite to make a positive impact on the world; • and to create a fund to ensure no student is prevented from making the most of the co- and extra-curricular opportunities that Cambridge has to offer. With your help, the Giving Week raised more than double our target figure, receiving £164,681 from 320 supporters - our heartfelt thanks to everyone who contributed financially or volunteered their time to help achieve such tremendous results. Philanthropy has also enabled us to pilot some innovative new projects, helping to support students at every stage of their journeys into Higher Education. ‘Get Set for Lucy Cavendish: the Blakey Mentoring Programme’ offered free academic tutoring to 27 Year 13 offer-holders from underserved communities in a range of subjects, as they worked to achieve their required grades. We have secured funding to run the programme again and to extend its reach so that even more offer-holders are supported in taking up their Cambridge places in October 2022.
A new postal ‘lending library’ was established to support already disadvantaged offer-holders who had additionally found themselves on the wrong side of the digital divide during the pandemic. The “hard copy only” library helps to make up for lost learning during the lockdowns by offering A-Level exam support materials as well as pre-course and first year reading texts. Our new colleague, Rachael Burcher is leading on the brand new STEM and Enterprise Programme. Rachael, who is being supported by AstraZeneca, is building strong, mutually beneficial relationships between the students and the local life science community, and raising funds to assist the new cohort of undergraduate STEM students. Meanwhile, alumna Lili Schwoerer is the principal academic lead on a one-year, innovative Student Lived Experience Research project. Lili’s work will enable us to better understand the day-to-day experiences of firstyear students at Lucy who come from backgrounds that are currently under-represented at the University. The students will be paid co-researchers, working on data collection and analysis alongside Lili, and their findings will help us to implement systematic solutions to the problems students like them may face. We look forward to sharing the outcomes of both of these initiatives with you in the coming months. Our Foundation Board continues to provide strategic advice and guidance on all aspects of fundraising and we are indebted to them for the time and energy they volunteer. We have established a sub-committee of the Board, based in North America. Members (who include Lucy alumna Disha Patel) are all well-networked leaders in their fields with a proven interest in the higher education sector. They are committed supporters of the College’s mission to widen access and to increase the proportion of outstanding international students from low-income backgrounds. They particularly wish to support those who will take postgraduate programmes related to the Sustainable Development Goals as defined by the United Nations.
ANNUAL REVIEW 2020/2021
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