Access & Outreach
Founded with the aim to make education at Oxford available to ‘gentlemen wishing to live economically’ — not exactly an ‘access agenda’ as we would understand it today, but an early attempt to broaden the social depth of the student body — Keble is committed to ensuring the brightest students are able to apply to Oxford regardless of their circumstances, and then to support them throughout their time here.
Working in our link area of the West Midlands, our Outreach Officer and Outreach Fellow both plan and deliver inspiring work with schools, teachers, pupils and their parents. From providing first-hand insights into university life, to offering advice on subject choices and delivering intensive academic tutoring — the Access and Outreach team here works all year round to attract, encourage, and give the brightest applicants the opportunity to make a strong university application.
All of our access and outreach programs at Keble are supported solely by the generous philanthropy of our alumni.
Access Snapshot
83 in-person events and 40 online events
4500+ visitors at the Keble Open Days
2542 students visited Keble, excluding Open Days
1711 students engaged with live online events
90 individual schools engaged with Keble
Keble’s School Programme 2023-2024
This year £86k was raised towards the running of our Access activities, and £68k to fund the associated staffing costs.
We engaged more than 5,000 young people in Outreach events during 2023-24. A large proportion of these were through school visits, both organised directly by Keble and through supporting other colleges’ equivalent events. We have worked directly with 75 state schools in our link areas during the year. 95% of these schools were non-selective state schools and 5% were selective state schools. Selective schools are typically considered for visits when a) they are in an area of high deprivation and/or diversity, b) they have a broadly non-selective sixth form, or c) both. Some selective schools are only offered virtual engagement with the college, typically to provide admissions advice and guidance. A third of schools involved during 2023-24 opted to engage more than once with Keble during the academic year, whether through bringing multiple year groups for a visit or booking virtual sessions. 18 schools this academic year had either not visited Keble before, or had not visited since 2019 or earlier.
Core activities for a school visit include an age-specific talk, question time with student ambassadors, college tours and lunch in the dining hall. There is an element of choice for afternoon activities, which can include debating (using Oxplore resources), subject taster sessions, additional college or city tours, admissions workshops (e.g. admissions tests) or visits to museums.
Amelia Burgess
2022 Medicine
“I visited Keble in my first year of sixth form and distinctly remember its warm, welcoming atmosphere. It was this (along with the very short distance between the College and the Medical Sciences Teaching Centre!) that made me apply to Keble. Although I instinctively felt that Oxford was right for me, I was not confident at all that Oxford would think I was right for them. Now at the end of my 2nd year at Keble, I can confidently say that I have settled into the Oxford lifestyle and truly feel part of the College community.
Physics Outreach Fund
In addition to the core Keble Access and Outreach projects funded by alumni donations, we are also fortunate to have the opportunity to collaborate with several projects targeted at talented school pupils, regardless of background, in Physics and Mathematics. Keble Physics Fellow Professor Alex Lvovsky is the initiator of several projects including:
The Comprehensive Oxford Mathematics and Physics Online School (COMPOS) is a unique nationwide outreach initiative from the Department of Physics at the University of Oxford. Its goal is to help enthusiastic secondary school students to systematically learn mathematics and physics, preparing them for higher education and eventually a career in these and related fields. COMPOS is now in its 3rd year, engaging over 500 GCSE and A-Level students at state schools across the country. Generous funding from XTX means that state school students can benefit from COMPOS free of charge. We pay special attention to recruiting students from underrepresented groups: about 30% of our students are female and 20% are eligible for free school meals. COMPOS involves homework assignments and online tutorials, and the curriculum largely follows the school syllabus, but presents the material at a higher and deeper level, concentrating on problem-solving skills. The programme is administered by the Department of Physics, but led by Keble Physics Tutor Professor Alexander Lvovsky.
Quantum Club is an online outreach programme for secondary school students interested in quantum mechanics, with the curriculum covering quantum postulates, measurements, operators, and entanglement. In this initiative each student completes 7 assignments and attends 30 online tutorials in a year in a small group of 6-8 students. We have 30-50 students every year.
Keble College is home to weekly in-person meetings of a Math Circle for students of school years 7 to 11. The Maths Circle is free of charge and encompasses an extensive array of subjects spanning Algebra, Calculus, Combinatorics, Game Theory, Euclidean Geometry, and Graph Theory. They also organize a bi-termly competition known as Maths Battles. The Maths circle is organized by the charity We Solve Problems.