We are a charity committed to educational equality.
Our vision is for all students to reach their potential in education. To achieve this, we want to help more students from non-traditional backgrounds to feel empowered and excited about fulfilling their potential at top universities.
Through our year-long programme we aim to improve educational aspirations, school attainment and application prospects to highly selective universities.
1 WEEK SUMMER COURSE
During August we hold a 1 week course for students to experience university life and a range of academic subjects.
MONTHLY COACHING SESSIONS
Students are paired with trained Universify coaches to receive support and guidance so they can achieve their academic goals
4 DAY EASTER RESIDENTIAL
Students return in the Easter holiday to receive GCSE-focused support.
We have identified three barriers to students from non-selective state schools applying to highly selective universities:
Low aspirations — students apply for universities or courses that are lower demand (and lower quality) than they are capable of attending, known as “under-matching”. This leads to higher drop out rates harming students and universities. The main reason for undermatching is that students did not apply to the university they were capable of attending rather than that they applied but were not admitted
Limited attainment — there is a limited pool of students from disadvantaged backgrounds who achieve GCSE grades that enable application to high demand universities
Feeling out of place — universities and application processes can be intimidating to students who are first generation university applicants. This is particularly pronounced for students from ethnic minorities and can lead to poor performance at interview or a decision not to apply in the first place
With thanks to Matt Lacey for filming and making the video.