Schools, colleges and community
Pre-16
The outreach team at the University of Leicester deliver a range of events, activities and information sessions for secondary school (Key stages 3 - 4) students. These sessions can be delivered in school or virtually (live or recorded).
We also offer a range of university experience days where students are able to visit us at the University of Leicester. We work with selected schools across the UK providing pre-16 outreach.
We have a dedicated member of the outreach team that can work with you to best support your students. If you’d like to get in touch to discuss support, book an activity, or have another query, please email schools@le.ac.uk.
Our core outreach offering
Our core Information, Advice and Guidance (IAG) offering has been designed to meet the needs of young people and enable as many young people as possible to have an encounter with a higher education provider through their educational journey. All of our IAG sessions are available to book as a 20-30 minute assembly for a whole year group or 1 hour workshop for a maximum of 30 students. This supports schools with meeting Gatsby Benchmark 7. We also offer a number of Subject discovery sessions in schools and colleges.
We have split our materials across the different year groups, which now make up our core IAG offering:
Year 7-8
What is Higher Education?
Students will gain an introduction to higher education and explore some of the opportunities and experiences going to university presents, as well as begin to explore the key differences between school and university.
Student Life
Hear from a current student at the University of Leicester about their experience of being a student, what they are studying, their favourite parts of university and the key skills they are developing.
Year 9
What is Higher Education?
Students will gain an introduction to higher education and explore some of the opportunities and experiences going to university presents, as well as begin to explore the key differences between school and university.
GCSE Options
Students will explore the different options available when selecting their GCSE choices, focusing on how certain courses at university require particular GCSEs with the aim of supporting students to make informed decisions.
Student Life
Hear from a current student at the University of Leicester about their experience of being a student, what they are studying, their favourite parts of university and the key skills they are developing.
Year 10 - 11
Post-16 Options
This session helps students explore the different options available to them for their Level 3 qualifications. We will look at some of the key differences in learning style and assessment, alongside how these choices can make a difference to the course options available to them at university.
The Benefits of Higher Education
Students will explore what higher education is, the benefits of undertaking degree level education, as well as the key differences between school and university.
Student Finance
An introduction on all thing’s student finance; including what support is on offer, what repayments look like as well as other ways to financially support yourself as a student at university.
Student Life
Hear from a current student at the University of Leicester about their experience of being a student, what they are studying, their favourite parts of university and the key skills they are developing.
Due to planned building works to improve our campus, we are extremely limited with space. As such, we are unable to accommodate any campus visit requests during 2025/26. However, we are planning on running a number of University Experience Days on selected dates to ensure students still have the opportunity to visit us.
2025 – 2026 pre-16 events
In addition to our core IAG offering, we host a number of additional opportunities for young people. Some are available for school bookings only whilst other events students can directly sign up.