Engineering students get a taste of university life

In September, the Faculty of Engineering ran a residential programme for incoming widening participation students.

Over 50 students took part in the one-week pilot programme from across ten engineering departments.

The new starters’ residential programme was designed in partnership with staff and students from across the college. It included a variety of carefully curated academic and social activities to support cohort building, ease transition to university, and instil a positive sense of belonging at Imperial: from sports sessions with Move Imperial, to treasure hunts in the Library and team activities to design the best engineering solutions to some of societies biggest challenges. Through observation and participant feedback, the programme team made valuable insights into how best to support students’ transition from school to university, particularly in those from underrepresented backgrounds. The project team look forward to sharing the findings of this programme with the wider Imperial community.

“For me, the best part of this programme was working collaboratively with colleagues across the College to create such a wide-reaching and impactful programme. We could not have done it without the unwavering passion and determination of individuals and the shared vision to improve the student experience and culture at Imperial. It was a true display of our Imperial Values, and this shone through in the overwhelmingly positive feedback from participants” said Jackie Bell, Programme Director and Senior Teaching Fellow in the Department of Computing.

“Already we’ve had students ask us how they can sign up to be mentors on next years’ programme – so that’s been a really promising sign that they enjoyed their experience, and we hope to secure additional funding to continue the programme in 2023/24.”

The programme was incredibly well-received by its participants, who were selected from a wide-range of widening participation (WP) backgrounds.

“The jump from College to University is immense, and it can be a very unfamiliar period for a student. However, this programme allowed me to ease into the huge community that is, Imperial, and I am more confident for the next stage of my life.” – Student participant

“The programme has allowed me to make friends with people in similar situations to myself and has assured me that I won't be attending here with people overly unlike myself.” – Student participant

The successful new starters’ programme resulted from cross-departmental collaboration and working with students as partners in the development process, thanks to student ambassadors, officer trustees (Imperial Student Union), and liberation and community networks (Imperial Working Class Network).

This is the first phase of a large, 18-month Royal Academy of Engineering funded research project to support widening participation (WP) students across the Faculty of Engineering in their transition from school to Imperial College.