Outreach in unreal times

by Hannah Pack

The College’s outreach programme had to change utterly and at speed when the pandemic struck, writes Somerville’s Access and Outreach Officer.

The best way to help a young person see themselves studying at Oxford is to get them here. That’s why, in a normal year, we welcome hundreds of pupils on visits, tours, residentials, our annual Demystifying Oxford Interviews day, and, of course, our open days.

But as the chorus of news around the virus began to crescendo, my colleague Nuala – our Access and Outreach Support Officer and a Somerville alumna – and I saw that our access provision needed to adapt rapidly.

Fortunately, we were able to get a head start moving into the online world thanks to The Access Platform. A significant investment in Hilary Term, this platform gives prospective applicants a way to chat to our students about any questions or concerns in a safe and moderated forum. Combined with our access website apply.some.ox.ac.uk, which launched in 2019, our recent investment in our digital offering put us in a good position to begin the work of post-virus outreach. The new normal brought opportunities as well as challenges. We soon found ourselves busier than ever, conducting virtual visits with ten schools in Trinity and another ten this Michaelmas, many of whom were new contacts. We also joined the new Oxford for South East Consortia to boost the University’s outreach efforts in the region, started an access Twitter account and YouTube channel, took part in university-wide interview workshops for disadvantaged applicants and made new videos and digital resources covering welfare and student life. Another innovation was our livestream open days on 1-2nd July and 18th September. Attended by over 1,750 viewers who asked more than 900 questions of our Tutors and student ambassadors (two of whom join us here), our live Q&As proved such a hit with students and

school communities that the central Tutors and student ambassadors gave presentations and answered hundreds of questions live from their living rooms.

University encouraged other colleges and departments to follow our lead.

As the new academic year began, our focus shifted to interviews, which are taking place entirely online for the first time this year. Luckily, we’re well used to sailing uncharted seas by now. With the amazing assistance we receive from the college community, I know that we will keep on finding ways to bring Somerville’s principles of inclusion and aspiration to life.

Mary McBain-Cass (2018, Biochemistry)

My sister Abbie and I come from a low-income, single parent family and went to a North Wales state school, so Oxford was definitely not the obvious option for us. We probably would have never even applied without visiting for access events – they showed us that Oxford students were so normal and not all Einsteins!

We wanted to make sure that more people like us would realise that Oxford might be for them, so last February we set up an Instagram account where we would share our experiences. When just weeks later the pandemic made visiting Oxford for outreach events impossible, we realised that we were in a unique position to help. We started by creating a new blog in lockdown to provide more detailed advice to complement our Instagram posts. Since then, we have been collaborating as Sisters@Oxford with access social media from multiple colleges, and the account has grown to over 1,000 followers. Our work has also led to collaborations with Oxford SU’s Target Schools committee and the new ‘Oxford from the Inside’ podcast – as well as so many supportive messages reinforcing the importance of what we’re doing. We started talking about setting up Somerville Access Instagram pretty much as soon as the new arrangements for Trinity term were announced. I wanted to focus on what we could do, rather than all the plans that had been put on hold. After completing virtual Trinity, things started to move faster and by August the Somerville Instagram had made its first post welcoming our freshers. I moved from there to sharing application advice and then just recently we’ve been giving top tips for interviews. I love how access has different stages through the year like this, it’s very dynamic. From day one, everyone has been Abbie and I are going to keep growing the blog, because we both know we wouldn’t be here without access and outreach initiatives, and we want to share that opportunity with others. I’m very proud to be part of a College and University

Photo by John Cairns.

Cara Moran, JCR Access Officer (2018, English)

which also believe passionately in access. really supportive. Trina Banerjee (2018, Music) has been particularly amazing. She came forward immediately to help, providing both a great counterpoint to my own experiences and our lovely graphics (we sometimes get messages complimenting her aesthetic from prospective applicants, which really make our day).

And while the cancellation of in-person events has been difficult, it’s also put things on fast forward and brought new ideas to the fore. In addition to the Instagram and our online open days, the new Access Platform became a really important channel of communication. It allows people to ask questions to us directly and we can message message back in a way that still feels very personal and connected.