University taster for 100 Shropshire school pupils

Posted 30 June 2014

Around 100 Shropshire primary school pupils sampled university life at Harper Adams last week, as part of a new collaboration between universities in the West Midlands.

Harper Adams is working with Keele, Staffordshire and Wolverhampton universities to deliver the project, which aims to give primary school children an insight into higher education.

The collaboration will be officially launched in autumn, but the first summer school taster took place this week, to trial out the format.

Each university works with two schools from the local area, with Harper Adams partnering with Windmill Primary School and Woodlands Primary School, both in Telford.

Marketing Officer for Widening Participation, Rachel Brookes, said: “The summer school is designed to give the children a taste of university life; including lectures, dining, social time and a disco.

“We arranged a series of varied workshops for them to take part in, related to the subjects that we teach here at Harper Adams.

“They were able to learn about companion animal husbandry, engineering, food manufacturing and wildlife ecology; all taught by real-life lecturers in fun hands-on sessions.”

The event was arranged by the Harper Adams Widening Participation team, which strives to raise the aspirations of young people and widen access to higher education for those from low participation groups.