Derby Scholars

The Programme

Derby Scholars is a collaborative outreach programme, between the University of Derby and the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge, to support less-advantaged high-attaining students from Derby city to develop the knowledge, understanding and skills, to successfully apply for highly competitive universities and courses.  

2022/23 saw the fourth cohort of students participate in the programme. Corpus Christi College, Oxford, partnered with the University of Derby for a fourth and final year. Murray Edwards College, Cambridge, supported the partnership in an associate role for the second year.

Students taking a group picture in front of a Cambridge University building
Students studying in the library
Students taking a group picture in front of an Oxford University building

Derby Scholars is made up of two programmes – Year 9 and Year 12 – with three key aims:  

  • University Experience Day at the University of Derby 
  • University Experience Day at the University of Oxford
  • Academic Skills and Parents Information Evening at the University of Derby 
  • Online Study Groups 
  • On-campus Study Groups using the University of Derby Library 
  • Subject Masterclasses by Oxbridge PhD researchers 
  • Academic Skills Day at the University of Derby (essay writing, critical thinking, research and personal statements)
  • University Experience Day at Corpus Christi College, Oxford 
  • University Experience Day at Murray Edwards College, Cambridge 
  • Application and Personal Statement Workshop 
A group of students in a library

Derby Scholars is successful in giving accurate information about oxbridge applications and the academic life. The programme gives confidence to applicants so they are able to apply

Cohort participant
Cohort 3 participant who has now enrolled at the University of Oxford

Participants

All state-funded secondary schools and mainstream FE providers in Derby city are invited to nominate learners to participate in the scheme.  

Participants are required to meet at least one widening participation criterion and, for Year 9, are predicted to achieve grade 7 and above in all their GCSEs, and for Year 12, are predicted to achieve at least AAB in their A levels. 

Table 1: Number of participants in Derby Scholars by year group and academic year 

Year 9  No. Of participating schools  Year 12 No. Of participating schools  
Cohort 1 (2019/2020) 75 9 28 4

Cohort 2 (2020/2021)

 32 5 21 4
Cohort 3 (2021/2022) 83 6 54 7
Cohort 4 (2022/2023) 75 6 49 5
Total by year group 265 26 152 20

Both strands of the programme led to 437 individual interactions. 

Table 2: The socio-economic and demographic breakdown of Cohort 4 participants

Targeting Summary  

% in target group 2022-23
Most deprived (IMD dataset)  71%

Least likely to progress (POLAR4 dataset)  

 70%
Free School Meals eligibility   30%
Gender-Male   31%
Declared Disability   9%
Minority ethnic group  58%

Impact

Evaluation data was collected using a mixed methods approach in line with the Widening Participation evaluation framework and includes: 

The learners’ progression to HE is also tracked.

  • 91.4% agreed or strongly agreed they felt motivated to work hard in school after the University Experience Day at Derby, this is a 34pp increase post-event compared to pre-event 
  • 84.2% agreed or strongly agreed they know where to get information about higher education after the University Experience Day at Derby, a 54pp post-programme increase  
  • 97% rated the Campus Visit to Oxford as ‘Good’ or ‘Excellent’  
  • 57% said they were ‘Probably’ or ‘Definitely’ thinking about applying to Oxbridge after taking part 
  • 97% rated the Academic Skills Day as Good or Excellent 
  • 100% rated the Campus Visits to Oxford and Cambridge as ‘Good’ or ‘Excellent’  

Overall programme evaluation has been very positive from teachers and students alike, indicating the programme is enjoyable and having impact on attitudes to learning and Oxbridge. For example, 97% of survey respondents rated the Year 9 Oxford fieldtrip ‘good’ or ‘excellent’. Comments about what they liked include: 

  • “Showing us that you don’t have to be rich to attend” 
  • “How all the staff were so welcoming and friendly towards us” 

Progression of Cohorts 2 (2020-21) and 3 (2021-22)

Although the response rate to the endline surveys has been lower than we would like (29% for Cohort 1 and 24% for Cohort 2) for those who have responded we can see the programme has had a clear impact in a number of areas:  

100% agreed or strongly agreed they knew: 

We have been collating destination data for previous cohorts. One aspect of this is the HE destinations of participants. Two approaches are taken for this: asking participants directly to inform us of their next steps and asking sixth forms to provide us with anonymised destination data for their Scholars participants.  

% of participants progressed to university  % of participants progressed to Russell Group institutions  % of participants progressed to Oxford or Cambridge 
Cohort 2 94% 50% 13%
Cohort 3 74% 53% 17%

For Cohort 3 a further 14% have decided to take a gap year. This is a significant rise than we have seen previously and so is something which may warrant further investigation to understand the reasons. 

Further analysis is also required into the application and offer rates to Oxbridge. Access to data from the University of Cambridge, and for application and enrolment data from Oxford colleges, has been challenging but as our partnership strengthens, this aspect will become embedded in the programme’s annual operations.  

And finally for next year we will be looking at how to sustain engagement throughout Year 13 to improve the response rate for the endline survey to support our further understanding of the impact of the programme.