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UCL Scholars is a free online literacy skills programme for Year 9 pupils from across the UK, delivered by UCL in partnership with the National Literacy Trust.
What is the Scholars programme?
UCL Scholars is a free literacy programme with live online events during the school holidays, and weekly online mentoring with current UCL students. The programme runs from February 2024 to July 2024.
You will develop your reading, writing, speaking and listening skills by working through a variety of curriculum-based activities expertly designed by the National Literacy Trust. You will put these skills to use in your final assignment, when you will create a speech on a topic of your choosing.
At the end of the programme, there will be an in-person event to celebrate your achievements. You will find out whether you have received a gold, silver or bronze award based on your participation in UCL Scholars.
Why take part in Scholars?
Some of the key benefits of taking part in Scholars include:
- Improved literacy skills and confidence.
- Increased knowledge of university, and the steps you need to take in order to get there.
- Opportunities to interact with current UCL students as well as young people your own age from across the country.
- The chance to receive an award in recognition of your engagement on the programme.
How and when will Scholars take place?
UCL Scholars is a hybrid programme of online sessions and one in-person event. There will be an online launch event, followed by three phases of literacy-focused online events each taking place during the school holidays*, followed by an in-person celebration event on our campus at the end of the programme. Each phase of the literacy-focused events will run over two days with each day being approximately three hours and thirty minutes long (including breaks).
- Literacy-focused event dates
- Reading: Wednesday 14th February & Thursday 15th February
- Writing: Wednesday 10th April & Thursday 11th April
- Speaking and Listening: Wednesday 29th May & Thursday 30th May
The launch event will take place online in the evening and will be approximately one hour/ one hour and thirty minutes long. The celebration event will be in-person and held at our London campus during the day.
- Launch and celebration event dates
- Launch Event: Thursday 1st February
- Celebration event: Saturday 20th July*
*For participants who are unable to attend our in-person Celebration event, we will also hold an online Celebration event on Thursday 25th July.
Between each set of live, online events, the mentoring aspect of Scholars will take place weekly on the Brightside online mentoring platform.
You must be able to commit to all aspects of this programme in order to be considered for a place.
*Please note, due to differences in term dates, some pupils may not be on school holidays when our live events are scheduled to take place. In these cases, we will provide resource packs to the affected pupils so that they can catch up on the missed activities in their own time. The dates for the events were chosen because they fall within the school holidays for the majority of young people.
Who can take part?
In order to be eligible to apply, you must be:
- Currently in Year 9.
- Attending a UK state school.
- Currently achieving a Grade 5 in English and Maths (we will ask your teacher to confirm this**).
Participants for this programme will be selected using the shortlisting criteria found on the Who we work with webpage to prioritise young people from the least represented groups. You will be awarded points based on the number of criteria that you meet. As part of our evaluation of the programme, applicants with the highest points will be randomised into a participant group that will be offered a place, and a non-participant group that will not be offered a place. You can contact the Data and Impact team if you have any questions about this process (wp-data@ucl.ac.uk)
We welcome applications from across the UK!
The Scholars+ Programme
Continued Support After UCL Scholars
Once participants have completed the UCL Scholars programme, they will automatically join Scholars+ and become Scholars Alumni. Scholars+ is a continuation of the UCL Scholars programme from Year 10 to Year 13, whereby you'll continue to have access to support from the UCL team right up until you attend university. This will be done through a couple of online sessions a year, designed to provide you with information and guidance on the next steps in your academic journeys.
- What are the benefits of Scholars+?
• Constant access to support from the UCL team until you reach university
• Access to essential information about student success
• The chance to reconnect with your fellow Scholars students!
- Is it the same as the UCL Scholars programme?
No, Scholars+ will look quite different to the UCL Scholars programme.
You will be invited to two Live Events per year that will last for around 1 hour. To make sure that these sessions are as useful as they can be, they will all have a different focus depending on where you are in your educational journey.
We’ll also keep in touch with you via email intermittently throughout each year, and you’ll be able to contact us at any point with questions.
Finally, once you reach Year 12, your sessions will continue with the Access Team who specialise in Post-16 programmes. This means that you’ll have access to the best preparation possible for your journey into Higher Education!
- Can I take part in UCL Scholars without taking part in Scholars+?
Yes, you can take part in the UCL Scholars programme and choose to opt out of Scholars+ at a later date. However, we strongly recommend that you partake in Scholars+ as it will provide you with essential information about reaching your full potential as students and will help to give you the best possible chance of attending a top Higher Education institution like UCL.
Application Deadline
Applications for the Scholars programme 23/24 have now closed.