Corpus Bridging Programme

Corpus seeks aspiring students with exceptional academic potential. For reasons beyond their control, able and ambitious individuals can miss out on the transformative opportunities offered by Corpus and Cambridge. The Bridging Programme is the College’s solution to correct this inequity.

Foundations: The Bridging Course

The Corpus Bridging Course was the first of its kind in Cambridge. Since October 2020, Corpus has offered ten additional undergraduate places to students from historically underrepresented and/or educationally disadvantaged backgrounds. They are filled by students who apply in the usual way and achieve the University’s standard offer grades in school examinations.

Eligible offer-holders are invited to attend the three-week residential Bridging Course in September. It enables participants to consolidate core academic skills necessary to succeed at Cambridge. Students receive subject-specific supervisions covering skills directly relevant to their chosen course. They can also visit libraries and practical labs.

More than 50 students have benefitted from the Bridging Course. There is no cost to participants. All funding is provided by donors. We are immensely grateful to everyone who supports the Bridging Course.

From Bridging Course to Bridging Programme

The concept of the Bridging Programme builds on the success of the Bridging Course. We aim to expand and deepen the support we offer students from educationally disadvantaged and/or underrepresented backgrounds. This support begins prior to making an application to Cambridge. It should then continue through the admissions process and the transition to university study. Continued mentorship, networking and skills development should take place during undergraduate study, and extend beyond to include those either entering employment or continuing to postgraduate study.

Our ambitions for the Bridging Programme can be summarised as comprising of four stages, following a student from their schooldays to beyond graduation.

Stage 1 focuses on outreach and access work. There is a particular emphasis on sustained engagement with school pupils who have high academic potential but lack the support to make competitive applications to Cambridge. Our efforts include:

The cost of these existing activities exceeds £100,000 a year. Almost all of this amount is funded by donations.

In addition, we would like to offer A-level support to offer-holders from educationally disadvantaged backgrounds. This group is most likely to miss their offer grades at A-level. It has been demonstrated that provision of A-level tuition does help students achieve the necessary grades to take up their place. The anticipated cost is £4,000 a year.

Stage 2 addresses the transition to university. The cornerstone of our work here is the well-established Bridging Course. Annual costs of £60,000 are met by donors, to whom we are so very thankful.

Stage 3 deals with student wellbeing and its impact on overall university experiences and outcomes. While Cambridge fares better than the UK higher education sector as a whole, degree completion rates, attainment gaps and differences in graduate outcomes are known to exist.

Closing these gaps forms a key part of the University’s Access and Participation Plan. The Bridging Programme seeks to address students’ needs with further investment in the College’s pastoral support team. The creation of what we refer to as the ‘Pelican Officer’ post will provide a programme of activities for all Corpus students that promotes participation and wellbeing through structured support in extra- and co-curricular activities throughout the academic year. This will result in improved health and wellbeing throughout the College, and ensure a consistent and professional approach. The Pelican Officer role is to be part-funded by the University but we must find a further £40,000 to recruit for the post.

Stage 4 seeks to equip Corpus undergraduates with the skills, experience and contacts to move successfully from their degrees to jobs in competitive fields, or to pursue a graduate degree. To achieve this goal, we want to offer student internship bursaries and a greater range of opportunities to engage with alumni working in professions of interest to them. The anticipated annual costs of these activities is £15,000.

How you can help

The Corpus Bridging Programme, as outlined above, offers an integrated and long-term approach to supporting academically strong students from historically underrepresented and/or educationally disadvantaged backgrounds. Through this programme we can identify, offer places to, and educate deserving students who may not otherwise have the chance to benefit from a Cambridge education.

Your help is essential if we are to deliver the Bridging Programme for the benefit of our students. You can donate now or contact Mrs Rachel Lawson, Director of Development, to discuss your interest in the Bridging Programme: +44 (0)1223 335492 or development.director@corpus.cam.ac.uk.