Celebrating Oxbridge Offers 2020

Fourteen of our students are celebrating after receiving offers for either Oxford or Cambridge University. The group, who have all been part of the College’s HE* Programme have been offered places on a wide range of courses, including Philosophy, English, Music and Human, Social and Political Sciences.

All students who are in the HE* Programme have the opportunity to take part in the prestigious HE+ Scheme, run in conjunction with Cambridge University which is a thorough and supportive program for all competitive applicants. Students and their parents are given clear guidance on how to decide between Oxford and Cambridge, the range of different subjects and the different colleges they can apply to.

In addition, potential Oxbridge applicants are placed in special Oxbridge tutor groups at the beginning of year 13, where they receive specific tuition on writing a personal statement, how to prepare for any pre-interview tests and a detailed explanation of the interview process. Each applicant will also have practice interviews and will receive feedback on their performance so that they can improve for the real thing, as well as having the benefit of help from subject teachers with lots of experience in preparing students for Oxford and Cambridge.

Former Newman students, currently studying at Oxford and Cambridge, act as mentors for our aspiring applicants too, visiting the college several times a year to talk about their own experience of applying and passing on what they have learned. They continue to advise and support our students by email and answer any questions they have about courses, colleges and the application process.

We are also very fortunate to have visits each year from Cambridge academics, who lead subject-based sessions and also give students more general advice and guidance on applying to the university, not to mention a trip to Cambridge, so that students can get an insight into what studying at Cambridge is really like.

All of this effort and hard work on the behalf of our staff and students certainly doesn’t go to waste, with almost 100 students from Cardinal Newman College being offered places at Oxford and Cambridge over the last six years. Congratulations to this years’ successful applicants!

(Pictured are 8 of the successful applicants Ffion Fox, Tamara Whitehead, Khadijah Hafeji, Aamina Iqbal, Isabel Love, Harriet Holdford-Smith, Declan Cox and Jack Campy.)