Another year, another successful Summer School
In July 2023 the Lifelong Learning Centre (LLC), University of Leeds welcomed a diverse group of 30 adult learners from across West Yorkshire to — somewhat unbelievably — our fifteenth Adult Learner Summer School!
The LLC’s Communities and Partnerships (C&P) team has come to view this annual event as the culmination of all the outreach activity we’ve undertaken with adult learners over the course of the preceding academic year.
We typically find the Summer School to be in high demand, reflecting the strength of our partnerships with local community organisations and adult education providers who’ve seen how attending the event has benefited their clients in the past, and who continue to refer potential participants to us year on year.
Participants range from adults with no formal qualifications, to others who’ve recently completed GCSEs or other courses at Levels 2 or 3. Some will have attended one or more of the LLC’s rolling series of events for prospective students, visited the campus as part of a community group or been spoken to by a member of the C&P team whilst they’re out and about locally.
But the Summer School has also proven to be a great way of engaging adults who may not have had any prior contact with the LLC, or the University of Leeds, and offering them a first chance to try out higher education in a relaxed and informal setting.
Context
Whilst we see the value in — and have consistently found there to be a considerable audience for — broadly targeted and comparatively light touch pre-entry activity, such as the ‘Studying as a mature student’ information sessions we regularly run both in-person and online, the Summer School is quite a different animal.
It shares a lot in common with JumpStart — the short, non-accredited course for adult learners run twice yearly by the LLC and led by Development Officer Fiona Chapel. Both areas of provision aim to build confidence and raise participants’ aspirations to take their learning further by exploring the kinds of academic and critical thinking skills required for university.
They also both involve a greater degree of commitment — we ask Summer School applicants to undertake attending all three days of the programme before we offer them a place — and are subject to more specific entry criteria than is the case with other aspects of our pre-entry provision.
Due to the targeted nature of the Summer School, for example, applicants are actually more likely to be over-qualified than under-qualified to take part. In most cases we don’t allow people to attend if they’ve completed a qualification at Level 3 or above, although non-UK graduates are often still eligible to make use of our educational advice and guidance service as an alternative. Applicants for whom English is not their first language are also required to demonstrate a certain level of proficiency to ensure they’re able to fully participate.
Where possible the pre-entry events we run on the campus, including the Summer School, feature an offer of free pre-school childcare in the University nursery to further remove barriers to adults taking part. In other cases participants are encouraged to bring along friends and family members, including children, for support (or convenience!).
Content and delivery
We use the Summer School to showcase some of the fantastic provision offered by the LLC through a range of engaging and inspiring sessions, which combine information-giving on areas such as student finance — which we frame as a discussion of the ‘costs and benefits’ of university — with opportunities to try out tasters of different subject areas. We also aim to raise awareness of the resources participants would be able to access as mature students at Leeds, for example by taking them on a guided tour of the University campus.
It’s always a team effort, with many non-C&P colleagues from the fabulous LLC staff team making themselves available across the three days to support learners and answer their questions.
Our volunteer ‘Learning Champions’ also play an invaluable role, encouraging participants to think through their options, sharing the diversity of their experiences as mature students and demonstrating that higher education really is a realistic possibility for adults.
The final day of the Summer School traditionally ends on a high, with a certificate presentation for all attendees by one of our Deputy Directors, a celebration lunch and even a cake to complete the party mood!
Impact
Former Summer School attendees have progressed into higher education, at Leeds or elsewhere, and Summer School alumni include some of our fantastic Learning Champions, Student Reps and others who contribute to the mature student voice at Leeds.
At the start of each new academic year, a look at the data on new applicants to programmes taught by the LLC really brings home how varied the journeys taken by incoming mature students can be. Some applicants may have made little or no use of our pre-entry provision, whilst others will have had multiple interventions from us — sometimes over a period of many years.
Closing thoughts
We’re deeply impressed by the enthusiasm and determination showed by participants at each Adult Learner Summer School — many of whom are visiting the University campus for the very first time. Their feedback is generally very positive and indicates the need for activity such as this, which addresses the fears prospective mature students often have about going to university later in life.
They’ve also consistently told us that they want the event to be longer — although having previously experimented with running a four-day version we lean towards the old adage that it’s best to leave people wanting more…
LLC Development Officer Olivia Garvey leads on the planning and delivery of our Adult Learner Summer School each year, and she’d be delighted to hear from anyone who’s interesting in finding out more about this area of our work.
