Following the success of LMH’s foundation year, Oxford have announced a new and innovative programme: the ‘Astrophoria Foundation Year’.
From 2023, 50 students a year from underrepresented backgrounds will be accepted into the new access programme. The one-year course, funded by a longstanding University donor, will be fully funded and offered in ten colleges: Exeter, Jesus, Keble, LMH, Mansfield, Somerville, St Anne’s, St Hugh’s, Trinity, and Wadham. The students will be able to apply with grades from BBB, and offered four foundation courses: Classics, History, English, and Theology; Chemistry, Engineering and Materials Science; PPE; or Law.
The students will then be offered a place at undergraduate level without any need for reapplication, or alternatively awarded a Certificate in Higher Education and able to study as undergraduates elsewhere.
The programme has been met by popular support, with Hamish Low, the Head of the Department of Economics, saying: ‘I am delighted the University is expanding Foundation Oxford to include PPE, and at the prospect that the inclusion of Economics within the programme will provide us with more opportunities to maximise the pool of talent coming to the University.’
The programme is a step forward on the promise of Professor Louise Richardson (Vice-Chancellor of Oxford) to offer 25% of places to disadvantaged students, with the figure today being at 21%. Richardson commented that the programme ‘will enable us to accelerate the progress we have made, as demonstrated in our annual admissions report, in broadening the socio-economic backgrounds of our undergraduate students.’
The announcement also follows the message from Professor Stephen Troope, Vice-Chancellor of Cambridge, that they will continue admitting fewer private school pupils in the future.