The college has become one of seven lead institutions across the country for the HE+ programme which will develop closer links with the best universities in Britain and help strengthen students’ applications.

 

Thirty eight Oxbridge hopefuls have just returned from a special visit to Cambridge where they were overnight guests at one college, visited other colleges and also  attended master classes and special workshops.

 

Dr Lyons, who is running the HE+ programme at Loreto, said the programme was good news for the college and for students.

 

"The trip to Cambridge has really helped to focus minds. Our students enjoyed meeting a number of the academics: this in itself broke down barriers, as they realised that the Cambridge academics are enthusiastic about their subject but also that they are not from an ivory tower,” he explained.

 

“The classes they attended were most valuable as they could experience university level teaching first hand and meeting the undergraduates too helped them to realise that the stereotype Cambridge student is far from the reality,” Dr Lyons added.

 

The ambitious HE+ initiative aims to make a significant difference to students from the state sector who may be thinking of applying to Cambridge and other Russell Group Universities.

 

And there was further OxBridge input at Loreto when 40 students attended the Oxford and Cambridge Regional Conference at Haydock Park where students could attend a number of talks on the subjects they are interested in, as well as talks on student finance, interviews and making competitive applications.

 

Currently 28 students from Loreto have places at Oxbridge, studying a wide variety of subjects such as Medicine, Natural Sciences, Languages, Philosophy and Economics, Mathematics, Law, English and History. Many more Loreto students also secure places at the elite Russell Group universities such as Bristol, Imperial College and Edinburgh.

 

Official figures show that in 2009-10, 54.3% of Oxford's new undergraduates were from state schools. At Cambridge, 59.3% of new students were but only 17% of sixth-formers in England are educated in the private sector.