29 June 2009

Education Secretary to visit Access Summer School

Photo opportunity: Fiona Hyslop MSP, Cabinet Secretary for Education and Lifelong Learning, will help four Physics students to conduct an experiment involving light and help them analyse data at the Harris Building, University of Dundee at 2.30pm on Tuesday, June 30th, 2009.

Fiona Hyslop MSP, Cabinet Secretary for Education and Lifelong Learning, will visit Dundee on Tuesday to see how students whose academic progress has been hampered by adversity are being offered an alternative route into higher education.

Ms Hyslop will meet students, staff and alumni from the University of Dundee’s renowned Access Summer School to find out how the intensive, 10-week programme works, and how it prepares students - whose personal circumstances have prevented them from attaining the required entry grades - for University.

She will join a group of four students tackling an exercise involving light of different colours and data handling during a Physics tutorial before hearing 18 university hopefuls debate the finer points of literature during an English class in order to gain an understanding of how the students spend their time at the Access Summer School.

She will then hear from staff how the University works to engage with potential students from all backgrounds in order to widen access to higher education. They will outline to Ms Hyslop the various initiatives that the University has developed to enhance the educational experience for students, and to help them to realise their potential.

Dr John Blicharski, Course Director of the Access Summer School, welcomed Ms Hyslop to the University, and explained how the programme had become an important part of the University.

'The ministerial visit is a wonderful tribute to the hundreds of staff here, in schools and far beyond, and the thousands of applicants who have helped this course evolve and prosper over the past 17 years,' he said.

'We remain committed to recruiting the best students regardless of background and circumstance, and are delighted that the success of the programme has been recognised in this way.'

Alumni and student helpers from the Access Summer School will also share their personal experiences of the programme with Ms Hyslop and explain how it helped them overcome the challenges that threatened to block their route to university.

Ms Hyslop said she wanted all Scots to have the chance to improve their skills and further their learning, regardless of their background or previous education.

'The University of Dundee Access Summer School is an excellent way of ensuring that individuals who do not meet conventional entry requirements but have a desire to study at a higher education level are given the opportunity to do so,' she said.

'Particularly for those people who have been made redundant in these challenging economic times, this provides a second chance to consider going back in to education and I am pleased that the new online version of the course is allowing more students to benefit from this opportunity.'

'Wider experiences from life and the workplace can foster important skills that will be valuable in helping people achieve and be a success in higher education.'

Since 1993, over 1200 students have benefited from the University’s Access Summer School, which allows potential undergraduates of all ages to qualify prepare and progress to a degree. The course has a 95% completion rate - over 85% of those who complete the course progress to university the same year.

This year’s intake of 67 students are currently studying four subjects each in order to demonstrate that, while their background or circumstances have prevented them from obtaining conventional entrance requirements, they possess the ability to excel at university.

For media enquiries contact:
Grant Hill
Press Officer
University of Dundee
Nethergate Dundee, DD1 4HN
TEL: 01382 384768
E-MAIL: g.hill@dundee.ac.uk