What is 'widening-participation'?

Widening-participation (or WP) is our shorthand for categorising students who either have some form of socio-economic and/or educational disadvantage or who come from non-traditional Oxbridge backgrounds (often students may have both of these characteristics). Nearly all of our access and outreach programmes have some form of WP criteria to ensure that the students who may need the most support are prioritised when assigning places.

What are WP criteria?

WP criteria include:

• Care experienced
• Having been eligible for Free School Meals at any point during the last six years
• Live in area of low progression to higher education (POLAR4)
• Live in area of high deprivation (IMD)
• Attend a low-performing Sixth Form
• Attend/attended a low-performing GCSE school
• Are from an ethnic or religious minority background (ERM)
• Are from any background or region of the UK which is under-represented at the University of Cambridge
• Are, or have been, an asylum seeker or refugee

In addition, we also take into account any personal circumstances that might have affected a student's academic development; widening-participation is not just about working with students who solely meet the above criteria but about helping all disadvantaged students make a strong application to Cambridge (or Oxford). 

What is the Area Links Scheme?

The University of Cambridge has linked all UK local authorities to specific Colleges; here at Corpus we are linked to Islington, Northern Ireland, and West Berkshire. This is to ensure that every school in the UK has a clear point of contact with the collegiate university and has the opportunity to cultivate close working relationships with specific access and outreach staff. 

Some of Corpus' access and outreach programmes are only for students and schools who are from our Islington, Northern Ireland, and West Berkshire (namely the Corpus Link Area Summer School) and sometimes if we are oversubscribed for certain programmes we may prioritise students from these areas.

The Admissions Team is very happy to work with schools and students from outside our linked areas, especially if there is a pre-existing relationship, but for school group visits to Corpus and in-person visits to a school by the Admissions Team contact should be made with the Area Link College in the first instance.