School students attend first graduation day since charity partnership

Outreach Officer Carys Owen teamed up with a social mobility charity in February to organise a day event at Oriel College to improve access to higher education for less advantaged secondary school students.

The charity, The Brilliant Club, offers programmes for school students from backgrounds with historically lower progression to higher education.

Through the charity’s Scholars Programme, doctoral postgraduates tutor small groups of students over several months. The students use the new skills they are learning to complete assignments.

Afterwards, students attend a “graduation day” at a university or higher education college, where they also hear from current undergraduates about higher education study.

Owen described The Brilliant Club as “an excellent charity” and said they have “a track record for raising aspirations and attainment among students who may not consider higher education to be achievable or realistic”.

The day event at Oriel in February was the first graduation day to be held at the college since a consortium of 13 Oxford colleges, including Oriel, became official partners of The Brilliant Club at the start of 2025. Fifty students attended the event, ranging in age from year 7 to year 10.

Owen spoke about the route to higher education and how Oxford and Cambridge are different to other higher education providers. Attendees also went on a tour of Oriel College with undergraduate student ambassadors and asked questions about life at university. A graduation ceremony took place at Oxford Town Hall in the afternoon.

A spokesperson for The Brilliant Club commented: “The graduation ceremony is an important milestone for our scholars and has a long-lasting impact on their educational journey.

“Higher Education Access Tracker (HEAT) data shows that attending a Scholars Programme graduation increases the probability of progressing to a competitive university by 15 per cent on average.”