A quarter of all the College’s Oxbridge applicants receive offers from the world's best universities.
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Truro and Penwith College’s Academic Academy is proving to be the perfect pathway to two of the world’s most prestigious universities, known collectively as Oxbridge, University of Oxford and University of Cambridge, with 15 students receiving offers, some on courses with very low national acceptance rates.
The 15 academic achievers come from across Cornwall and have received offers in subjects as diverse as Archaeology and Anthropology, Modern and Medieval Languages, Engineering, Medicine and Law. The future leaders and pioneers gaining a place is a quarter of all the College’s Oxbridge applicants, far exceeding the national average of 1 in 6.
A Level and Law Academy student Amelia has an offer to study law at Exeter College, Oxford. Sharing her exciting news the former Treviglas Academy pupil said: “I’ve been planning to go to the University of Oxford since I was about 12 years old.”
Dreaming at a young age is one thing but when the offer arrived Amelia was shocked. There is a low acceptance rate nationally, of just over 10%, to study law at Oxford.
“All I can really say is that it was a real shock to get the offer, as I really wasn’t expecting it, but I am so happy to have been accepted. I couldn’t have done any of it without the help of the law department and my amazing law teacher Lara who has done so much to help me achieve this. Now I’ve just got to work on getting the grades.”
Joining her at University of Oxford’s Exeter College is Poppy from Penryn. Like Amelia, she has gained a place on an engineering course with an exceptionally low acceptance rate of just 14%.
The former Penryn College student always knew she wanted to go to Oxbridge so joined the Accelerate Academy at Truro and Penwith College, a bespoke programme of study for Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM), for learners who are academically minded and aiming for highly competitive places at university.
As she explains, this programme of study was perfect for Poppy: “I knew it was the best option for me. I really liked how Maths and Further Maths was structured where I would cover all of A Level Maths in the first year and then Further Maths in the second year.”
The college offers exceptional support for students who wish to apply to Oxbridge with 17.6% at Oxford and 32% at Cambridge of all applicants successfully receiving offers, far outperforming the national figures of 14% for Oxford and 21% for Cambridge.
Available to all full-time students, Enrichment programmes like the Academic Academy run alongside studies at the College to support learners with extra curriculum opportunities. For students striving for Oxbridge places this includes familiarisation visits to the universities, mock interviews and talks from the College’s Oxbridge alumni. Along with the Accelerate programme to support STEM students there is also a Medics Academy for those wishing to specialise in medicine.
The mock interviews really helped Brooke studying A Levels at Penwith College in Penzance.
“I had so much support from all my tutors, with a million mock interviews in the weeks leading up to ensure I was prepared,” she said.
All the extra hard work paid off, Brooke has an offer to continue her studies in English Language and Literature, at Merton College, Oxford. Receiving her exciting news during her English lesson, the student from Penzance aiming to pursue a career in PR, said: “I was so pleased and relieved when I finally got confirmation.”
The Oxbridge Programme’s familiarisation visit really helped Richie confirm his choice; the former Mounts Bay Academy student shared: “We got to go up to the University of Cambridge and it was very helpful for me because originally I was thinking of going to Oxford, but I decided to apply to Cambridge after that trip and speaking to some of the professors about the courses.”
Commenting on the overall excellent results, Christopher Hatch, Oxbridge Academy Lead, at Truro and Penwith College, said: “Nationally, the competition for places at Oxford and Cambridge is fierce, with a success rate of just 1 in 6 applicants securing an offer, so we congratulate our students.
“This is an outstanding set of offers that reflects their strength, as well as the support from our lecturers, Oxbridge mentors and the wider college. Support for Oxbridge applicants within the college is extensive, with specialist support tutors, pre-application residential visits, visits from admission tutors and practice interviews from our governors, staff and external experts.”
