About our Outreach Services

Widening participation through a progressive programme

Our progressive programme of activity is designed to raise awareness of the benefits of higher education and prepare students for university life. Our outreach is a key element of our commitment to widening participation in higher education.

For both pre and post 16 we offer a range of subject specific and general HE awareness raising activities. We deliver this in schools and colleges across the UK as well as bespoke, one day, on campus events. All of our outreach activity is free and travel bursaries are available for on-campus visits.

Find out about our commitments to widening participation

An evidence-led approach

We design our activities to support the National Curriculum. We use several educational frameworks and principles to guide outreach design and delivery, including:

Gatsby Benchmarks

Career Development Institute Framework

North East Raising Aspiration Framework

NERUPI Framework

TASO evidence toolkit

Image shows the back of a student ambassador

Outreach facilitators

A wide range of experienced practitioners deliver our events and activities. Colleagues are fully trained in child protection and are based within the University’s UK Recruitment Team.

Outreach Ambassadors

Fully trained outreach professionals who facilitate our outreach programme in schools and colleges across the UK. They are all recent graduates who offer a relatable and authentic view of the Newcastle student experience.

Outreach Ambassadors deliver sessions that cover all stages of the student journey to, and through university. They also deliver STEM, Social Science and Humanities subject-specific sessions.

"This year I am really looking forward to refine my graduate skills I've developed at university, all whilst being able to help prospective students transition into higher education through widening participation schemes that I also used!" - Daniel, Outreach Ambassador

Student Recruitment & Outreach Coordinators

Our coordinators arrange and deliver our outreach activity. They are specialists from Newcastle University. They can work with you to tailor our sessions to meet your students' needs.

Student Recruitment Support Team

A dedicated team of staff who support the organisation and delivery of our events.

Student Ambassadors

We employ a large team of current students who deliver outreach activity and campus tours. Our Student Ambassadors offer peer-to-peer support and share a first-hand experience of their journey to Newcastle University.

Academic colleagues

Subject specialists and world-leading researchers deliver subject-taster sessions. They support us to develop high-quality, curriculum-related content for our outreach activities.

Wider University Network

We collaborate with the university community to bring you events and activities that support your students' journey. This may include colleagues from Student Finance, Student Wellbeing, or our award-winning Library and Careers Services.

The presentation was fantastic. It was very engaging and covered all aspects of university life and did not solely focus on Newcastle which was informative.

Student Life, The King’s Academy

We loved the lecture from the academics and students felt that it gave them a good idea of what student life would be like.

Sociology taster and tour, Kings Priory School

We have run this session for a couple of years and every time the pupils love it and gain knowledge from it.

Island Escape, Seaton Sluice Middle School

The session was very engaging and really inspired the children to ask questions to find out more.

Story of Earth, Wylam First School

The idea was brilliant and it used so many different areas of STEM. The activity was engaging and led to a lot of interesting discussions.

Zombie Apocalypse, Sandhill View Academy

Students really enjoyed the statues session as they were able to experience a similar session to a seminar. For our students this meant that the prospect of study at university was much less daunting to them.

Statues: should they stay or should they go? Richard Rose Morton Academy

Thank you for delivering the Bog Bodies session. The children loved it and still talk about what they learnt now!

Bog Bodies, Brunton First School

Both sessions were excellent. Your Outreach Ambassador was an excellent speaker - she was clear, knowledgeable, and engaging. Sessions were well planned and timely.

Forensic Psychology and the Brain Game, Bede Sixth Form

Schools and colleges outreach