The Pelican Programme: Nominations

Nominations are now closed for the 2026 Pelican Programme!

The Pelican Programme is Corpus Christi's flagship outreach scheme and is designed to not only introduce students to new and exciting super-curricular resources and themes, but also to stretch, challenge, and sharpen their oracy and problem solving skills. 

 

This sustained and intensive programme runs for six months, with students meeting online in small groups every fortnight to analyse set pre-reading or complete problems under the supervision and guidance of a subject expert. The programme also includes admissions sessions with members of the Corpus Admissions Team and, if students successfully complete the programme, they will be in a strong position to make a competitive application to any selective university. 

 

To close the programme, students who have successfully completed it are invited for a short residential event at Corpus to celebrate their achievement, meet each other in-person, and meet current undergraduates at Cambridge!

 

This year the Pelican Programme will include the following subject streams:

  • Architecture 

  • Classics (also relevant for aspiring Anglo-Saxon, Norse & Celtic, Asian & Middle Eastern Studies, or History of Art students)

  • English

  • Geography - new for 2026!

  • History

  • Law

  • Modern and Medieval Languages (French & Spanish)

  • Philosophy, Religion, and Ethics (also relevant for Theology)

  • Physical Sciences (Chemistry, Engineering, Physics)

  • Psychological and Behavioural Sciences (PBS)

 

Eligibility Criteria

To be eligible, students must meet these criteria:

  • Be in Y12 (or equivalent) at a UK maintained state school

  • Be on course for A*AA (or equivalent), or A*A*A (or equivalent) for the Physical Sciences and PBS streams

  • Meet at least one of our widening-participation criteria

  • For Physical Sciences, only students who identify as female may apply, and students must be studying Maths, Chemistry and/or Physics at A-level.

  • For Psychological and Behavioural Sciences, students must be studying either Maths, Chemistry, or Biology at A-level.

  • For Classics, a 7 in any language at GCSE (or equivalent) is required and students who have an A-level language will be prioritised.

If you are unsure about whether a student meets any of the widening-participation criteria, the outreach team is happy to check for you providing that you have the student's consent to share their information.

 

Application Task

  • As part of the nomination form, students are asked to write a 300-word personal statement for all subjects (except Architecture and Law) explaining why they want to be part of the Pelican Programme and why they want to study their chosen subject at university.

  • If you are nominating a student for Architecture or Law, they will instead have to write a short response to a set question and this will need to be uploaded to their nomination form:

  • If you are nominating a student for Physical Sciences they will need to complete a set of Maths and either Chemistry or Physics problem boards on Isaac Science. 

    • (You can also access the boards using this code 9NNAUB under My Account & Teacher Connections).

 

The deadline to submit nominations has now passed and all students who were nominated have now received the outcome of their application. If you have any queries about the nomination process or the Pelican Programme in general, please don't hesitate to contact Lucy.