Christ Church Access and Outreach Partnerships
Christ Church collaborates with a range of charities and initiatives working to raise aspirations to Higher Education and to encourage students from under-represented backgrounds to apply to Oxford University.
IntoUniversity
We are the main source of long-term financial support for IntoUniversity Oxford South East, which offers a sustained programme supporting local young people from disadvantaged backgrounds to attain either a university place or another chosen aspiration. Our students also do volunteer work as mentors for IntoUniversity, and visits are hosted at Christ Church.
Target Oxbridge
Christ Church supports Target Oxbridge which works to identify and support talented black African and Caribbean students and students of mixed race with black African and Caribbean heritage, in order to improve their chances of access to Oxford and Cambridge. We were delighted to host the Target Oxbridge residential at Easter 2019.
The Brilliant Club
We have expanded our collaboration with the Brilliant Club and run events with them throughout the year for the Scholars' Programme. For this, they recruit, train and place doctoral and post-doctoral researchers in state schools to deliver programmes of academic enrichment to small groups of pupils. Through a combination of university trips, in-school tutorials and online resources, the Brilliant Club support pupils aged 10-18 to develop the knowledge and ambition needed to progress to highly-selective universities.
Christ Church Access Hub
We also have an ‘Access Hub’ through which we offer financial support to some other partner organisations. Our Hub partners also make use of our rooms to host events, and benefit from presentations and workshops run by our Access and Outreach staff.
Some of our Access Hub partners are:
Debate Mate
Debate Mate is an educational organisation that teaches debating in schools situated in areas with high levels of child poverty, as a means of boosting academic attainment and promote upward social mobility. See https://debatemate.org/
FirstGen
Oxford First Generation Students supports students who are the first in their family to go to university. It was first set up by Lynton Lees, a Christ Church History student, and has been continuing to support students ever since.
Sikh Society
The Sikh Society is a student society at Oxford University. In 2019 Christ Church hosted the first Sikh Access Conference, organised by the Oxford and Cambridge Sikh Societies. In 2020 the Access Conference took place digitally, again supported by Christ Church. Both events hosted Year 12 and 13 students who identify as Sikh, providing them with the opportunity to learn more about Oxford and connect with current undergraduates at Oxford and Cambridge.
Northerners Society
The Oxford Northerners Society is a student society whose aim is to bring together Northern students at the University. They also aim to provide access and outreach to the North (including one of Christ Church's link regions, the North East of England).
Onyx Magazine
Onyx Magazine seeks to celebrate and platform the voices of talented Black poets, artists and writers, and to increase the visibility of Black students not only within higher academic institutions but also within the publishing industry. They have published the art, poetry, articles and historical essays of Black students from across the University. They issued their third edition in November 2020.
If you are interested in finding out more about the Christ Church Access Hub, please contact the Access and Schools Liaison Officer (access@chch.ox.ac.uk).
