IntoUniversity

 

IntoUniversity is the largest charity working nationally to support young people from disadvantaged backgrounds to attain a university place or realise their own ambitions.

A partnership with Anglia Ruskin University has seen the first IntoUniversity centre in Essex set up in Clacton-On-Sea where young people from local schools either attend the IntoUniversity centre in Clacton or benefit from their outreach in schools.

Like many seaside towns, the opportunities for children and young people in Clacton are fewer than elsewhere and the low take up of Higher Education places is one of the indicators linked to the higher deprivation index score for parts of Tendring District.

Through dynamic and innovative interaction, IntoUniversity challenge the norms and seek to breakdown the barriers that mean young people don’t consider that Higher Education is for them. Sponsored by ARU the scheme is supporting children from as early as age 7 to talk about university and think about their future with support increasing in emphasis, throughout their time at Secondary school and their move into sixth form.

Raising aspirations is a long-term investment but the partnership between IntoUniversity and ARU encourages students to believe in their own potential and gives them a chance to get a feel for university first-hand through visits to the Chelmsford campus supported by the ARU Schools Engagement Team.

James Rolfe, CEO at Anglia Ruskin University sees the relationship as a long-term investment and believes it doesn’t really matter whether the young people go to university at ARU or the University of Essex, or Russell Group universities or even see their future being through Further Education or vocational study programmes; young people believing in their own abilities and their own potential is the real success.