Outreach
Outreach at Murray Edwards is delivered by a dedicated Access and Student Recruitment team.
We work with schools, communities and individual students with the academic potential to succeed at Cambridge. If you are interested in any of our programmes and events – or would just like to learn more about Murray Edwards College – we’d love to hear from you.
Drop us an email at outreach@murrayedwards.cam.ac.uk
College Area Links Scheme
Every Cambridge College is linked to areas in the UK through the University's Area Links Scheme. This scheme ensures that no matter where you live in the UK, you will have an outreach team offering support and opportunities to students in your area who are interested in studying at Cambridge.
Murray Edwards is linked with Greater Manchester, Derbyshire, and the London Borough of Haringey. Although we are a college for women, we are committed to providing access and outreach opportunities for students of all genders across our Link Areas - so male students are welcome at our events too!
If you are a school or student in one of these regions and would like to find out more about the University of Cambridge, or be involved in our regional Student Access Conferences, please contact us at outreach@murrayedwards.cam.ac.uk
We are consistently building connections and hosting events with schools and students in our link areas. Here are just some of the opportunities we've created recently for our link area students:
We travel to each of our link areas to host 'Access Conferences' for any interested schools or students in the area. This year, we've already hosted our conferences in Manchester and Haringey - and our Derbyshire conference is on the horizon!
Our Access Conferences look a little different to the traditional Cambridge Outreach model. Rather than sending one former student into schools to talk about the college, we're trialing a new system that we feel helps students and schools get a much better picture of Murray Edwards - and the University! This year, we've made sure that our Director of Admissions is present at every one of our Access Conferences. As well as giving a presentation with invaluable advice and the most up-to-date information about the application process, he also offers an informal Q&A with students and staff. We've found that this is one of the best ways to dispel unhelpful myths about the University - and to reassure students from all backgrounds that they are absolutely welcome at Cambridge.
Next, we give students the opportunity to discover potential subjects in more depth, by splitting them into STEM and AHSS (Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences) focus groups. Each of these groups is led by an academic from Murray Edwards, who is able to talk them through the details of a Cambridge degree, including essay writing skills, work experience, lecture timetables, expected workloads, and the support systems we have in place to help them. Around 10 current undergraduate students from Murray Edwards sit in on these sessions, sharing their personal experiences from the application process, all the way through to revising for their University finals!
We round the day off with our Undergraduate Student Q&A - we find that this session tends to turn more towards student life and socialising rather than academics. It is helpful for school students to speak to our undergradutes about what daily life looks like at University, and to get tips about work-life balance that they can implament towards their own A Level exams.
Finally, we make sure that at least one member of our Outreach team is present at each conference. We do this to put a face to the outreach@murrayedwards.cam.ac.uk email address - so students and schools with further questions feel more confident about getting in touch and starting a dialogue with us. We are really proud of the relationships we've established with our Link Area schools, and regularly converse with Heads of Sixth Form and individual students about providing further support, such as travel grants.
The Murray Edwards Reading Project is a fantastic opportunity for Year 12 students with an interest in studying English at Murray Edwards.
Created and run by two of our English Fellows, Dr Sean McEvoy and Leo Mellor, students get a combination of in-person and online mentorship from Cambridge academics and undergraduate students on First Year university level course content.
Either Sean or Leo makes a personal visit to each of the participating schools, to talk through the Project structure, answer questions about the English course more widely, and chat to students to find out their literary interests and guide them towards Reading Project sessions that might suit them.
We then host a regional Reading Project Launch Event where both Sean and Leo deliver an original undergraduate level lecture to interested students, as well as walking you through a typical student's first term at Cambridge. This presentation covers example essay topics, exam questions, lectures, and starts to explore how students are expected to think critically in their writing.
A group of our Undergraduate Students also deliver a short introduction to the classes they will be hosting - setting up their topic areas so students can choose which to attend. An informal breakout session with both Academics and students is often very helpful in allowing school students to ask questions on a range of University and course related questions
Over the next few months, students are able to attend weekly online classes with our Undergraduates, analysing texts the way they will be expected to at university. Recent topics have included Protest Poetry, Oroonoko by Aphra Behn, and the Harlem Renaissance.
Further Outreach Programmes
She Talks Science
She Talks Science is Murray Edwards' flagship programme for women in STEM. We provide networking opportunities, academic courses, and admissions advice for Year 12 students from all over the UK to encourage them to pursue a degree, and a career, in STEM subjects.
As a college for women, we are all too aware of the gender gap that still exists in STEM degrees, labs, and industries across the globe. Our students often comment on how refreshing it is to study STEM stubjects at Murray Edwards - where they are never the only woman in the room! That's why we focus on community building during all of our She Talks Science events.
Here are a few of the She Talks Science activities we've offered this year!
Student Conference
Almost 100 young women with a passion for STEM signed up to attend our She Talks Science student conference! The day began with a talk from our Director of Admissions for STEM, who set out the Cambridge application process, and gave specialist advice to help students prepare for the particular challenges of a STEM application at Cambridge. Students then selected a subject taster session, where a Murray Edwards Academic delivered an undergraduate level seminar and helped students get a feel for university style teaching. Subjects on offer included Mathematics, Natural Sciences, Medicine, Computer Science and Engineering.
We then invited a team of our Alumnae - all now working in STEM careers - to talk about life after university. Our Alumnae shared their experiences working as women in STEM, and offered students ideas about helpful early career pathways that would set the students up for success.
After a free lunch in our gorgeous Dome Dining Hall, the day concluded with some more informal activities - a tour of the college and a Q&A session, hosted by our current undergraduate STEM students.
Medicine Open Day and Cambridge Physics Experience
It was such a pleasure to welcome so many Year 12 students interested in Medicine at Cambridge to our Medic Open Day. Students were treated to a series of Undergraduate level lectures from Murray Edwards Academics, including subject specialists in Anatomy and Clinical Research.
As part of the Cambridge Physics Experience, Murray Edwards also hosted a group of brilliant Year 12 students with a passion for physics. Students were treated to an original, undergraduate level, lecture delivered by CERN Particle Physicist, and Murray Edwards Fellow, Dr Sarah Williams.
On both occasions, as well as receiving specialised advice about the Cambridge Natural Sciences and Medicine courses, students were taken on a tour of the college by current undergraduates, and had lunch in the Murray Edwards Dome.
STEP summer school
Students hoping to study Mathematics at certain top universities must undertake an additional entrance examination known as the STEP paper. This exam requires special preparation as the question style and answer format are very different to your A Level exams. Murray Edwards offers a 4 day residential summer camp specifically aimed at preparing young women to sit the STEP exam - with truly fantastic results! Students who attend the summer school leave feeling much more confident as mathematicians, and with the STEP paper. They are also introduced to a community of like-minded female mathematicians who stay friends for life.
Applications will be assessed on academic merit in the field of mathematics. In the event we are oversubscribed with equally strong applicants, we will prioritise those from underrepresented backgrounds
Webinars
We offer a range of subject webinars to help school students try out different university courses. Our webinars range from undergraduate level lectures to in-depth course and application preparation workshops. All our webinars are run by one of our leading Academics, who are occasionally joined by one of their students. These webinars are free and hosted on zoom, however we are working on posting recordings of each webinar to our YouTube page in the coming months - so watch this space!
We offer STEM and Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences webinars - so there is something for everyone!
