Cambridge tutor scheme sees grades rise for Stem students
The University of Cambridge said the scheme was launched in response to challenges faced by state schools teaching physical sciences, in particular physics. It said in England there was an estimated national shortage of at least 3,500 physics teachers.Jasmine Covell, 18, who is now a first year natural sciences undergraduate at King's College, Cambridge, said Oxbridge had not been on the radar where she lived as most people applied to local universities to save on accommodation costs.She studied A-level biology, chemistry and maths at a college near Middlesbrough and was in Year 9 when the first lockdown took place."It definitely helped with catching up on work we'd missed during Covid," she said after completing the Cambridge scheme. "We got behind on some of the content, particularly the more advanced stuff, so it was great to get the extra learning through STEM SMART."Ucas analysis of the scheme compared the first two cohorts (1,120 pupils) with 9,000 pupils from similar backgrounds. It said those who received the tuition were more aspirational and sixth formers from more disadvantaged backgrounds saw the biggest average grade boost. Samuel Iranloye, 19, joined the first cohort while studying A-level maths, further maths, physics and chemistry in south-east London. Now a second-year engineering undergraduate at Churchill College, Cambridge, he said his experiences visiting the university during the scheme influenced his choice."The extra tuition also helped consolidate the learning in school. It also helped me when it came to preparing for my university admission tests," he said.
The scheme aimed to address an attainment gap that already existed in the UK, which was then exacerbated by the pandemic, said Ms Jardine-Wright, a co-director of the programme.She said: "This is about levelling the playing field and enabling students from educationally disadvantaged and underrepresented backgrounds to access Cambridge and other competitive universities."Ucas found students who engaged the most in the scheme saw their results rise by a grade, were up to four times as successful in achieving A*s as their peers, and were almost twice as successful in securing a place at Oxbridge.
Follow Cambridgeshire news on BBC Sounds, Facebook, Instagram and X.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Independent
5 days ago
- The Independent
The ‘small, sustainable changes' that support your long-term health
A new international study, including an expert from the University of Cambridge, has linked regular French fry consumption to a significantly increased risk of developing type 2 diabetes. The research, which analysed nearly four decades of dietary data from over 205,000 US health workers, found that eating French fries three times a week raised the risk by 20 per cent, escalating to 27 per cent for five times a week. In contrast, the study concluded that baked, boiled, or mashed potatoes were not associated with any increased risk of type 2 diabetes. Emma Pike, deputy head of clinical at Diabetes UK, highlighted that while there is no single diet to prevent type 2 diabetes, a healthy, balanced diet, including reducing certain fried foods, plays a vital role in lowering risk. Experts recommend several 'small, sustainable changes', such as opting for whole fruit over juice, homemade sandwiches over pre-packaged ones, and mixed nuts instead of crisps, to support long-term health and reduce diabetes risk.
Scottish Sun
5 days ago
- Scottish Sun
Brits fast-tracked onto NHS trial of ‘game-changing' cancer vaccine to combat sex-related cases
'These cancer vaccines could be game-changing for patients facing some of the most challenging diagnoses,' one expert says PEOPLE with head and neck cancer will be given fast-track access to a new "transformative" cancer jab. The injection targets advanced forms of the devastating disease, giving patients "renewed hope of holding it at bay". Advertisement 2 More than 100 patients are expected to be recruited onto the trial Credit: PA It works by boosting the immune system's response by using Covid jab-style mRNA technology helping it 'attack' cancer cells containing human papillomavirus (HPV) proteins. Up to 70 per cent of all head and neck cancers are linked to HPV, a virus often spread via sex. This move adds to the NHS England's Cancer Vaccines Launch Pad programme, which has already helped 550 bowel and skin cancer patients. More than 100 patients with advanced head and neck cancer are expected to benefit from the jab through the AHEAD-MERIT (BNT113) trial, running at 15 hospitals over the next year. Advertisement Head and neck cancer is a general term to describe forms of the disease in those regions of the body, and can include cancer of the mouth, throat or voice box. Around 11,000 new cases are diagnosed in England every year. HPV is a common virus spread through close contact, including sex and childbirth. Advertisement Most HPV infections clear naturally without causing symptoms. 'Low-risk' types may cause warts, like genital warts or verrucas on hands and feet. But at least 14 'high-risk' types can sometimes trigger cancer. Rock star devastated as he's diagnosed with 'very aggressive' cancer and shares snap from hospital bed Despite treatment advances, aggressive head and neck cancers remain tough to beat, with high recurrence rates and less than 50 per cent surviving beyond two years. Advertisement The vaccine used in the study has been designed to create two proteins that are commonly found in head and neck cancers associated with high-risk types of HPV. These types of cancer, known as squamous cell cancers, develop from flat, scale-like cells in the outer layer of the skin and other areas of the body. Health minister Karin Smyth described the plan as a "massive win for cancer patients". She added: "These cancer vaccines could be game-changing for patients facing some of the most challenging diagnoses. Advertisement "By getting these trials running in our NHS, we're putting ourselves at the forefront of medical innovation, improving outcomes for people living with cancer." NHS England has joined forces with life sciences company BioNTech to help identify potentially eligible patients to refer to NHS hospitals running the trial. 2 The trial is the third to be run through the NHS Cancer Vaccine Launch Pad, which is supported by the Cancer Research UK-funded Southampton Clinical Trials Unit. Advertisement Professor Peter Johnson, national clinical director for cancer at NHS England, said: "It's fantastic that more patients with advanced head and neck cancers will now be able to access this potentially transformative vaccine, offering renewed hope of holding the disease at bay." Tamara Kahn, chief executive at Oracle Head & Neck Cancer UK, said the trial "offers crucial hope to those living with advanced stages of cancer". "While we advocate for HPV vaccination to prevent these cancers, those already fighting this devastating disease urgently need new treatments that could mean more time with loved ones," she added. 'It'll allow people to get on with their lives' Chris Curtis was diagnosed with HPV-related head and neck cancer in 2011 and set up a support charity, The Swallows. Advertisement The 67-year-old, from Blackpool, said: "As a survivor of HPV-related head and neck cancer, I know first-hand the physical, emotional, and psychological toll this disease takes not just on the patient, but on the entire support system around them. "With this aggressive cancer you live in the fear of reoccurrence every day - so anything that could help control the disease or give people peace of mind is groundbreaking - it'll allow people to get on with their lives and move forward." The Cancer Vaccine Launch Pad - a partnership between NHS England, the Government and BioNTech - has already helped refer about 550 patients to trials for vaccines for bowel and skin cancers. Dr Iain Foulkes, executive director of research and innovation at Cancer Research UK, said: "The Cancer Vaccines Launch Pad is an important route to fast-track promising mRNA vaccine technology into clinical trials. Advertisement "Research into personalised cancer treatments is vital. "There are over 200 different types of cancer and it's unlikely there will ever be a single cure that works for everyone. "That's why it's vital that we support a wide range of research, so that more people can live longer, better lives, free from the fear of cancer."
Daily Mail
6 days ago
- Daily Mail
What could go wrong? Scientists want to launch an interstellar mission to a BLACK HOLE
It sounds like something taken straight from the pages of a high-concept science fiction novel. But scientists now want to launch an interstellar mission into the heart of a distant black hole. The plan is to create a tiny spacecraft no heavier than a paperclip, propelled by lasers, and accelerated to nearly the speed of light. Although it might take up to 100 years, scientists say this bold mission could change everything we know about physics. However, this groundbreaking project could come with eye-watering costs of up to £1 trillion for the lasers alone. To make things even more difficult, the technology required to actually build the spacecraft doesn't yet exist. Despite these issues, Professor Cosimo Bambi, of Fudan University in Shanghai, is optimistic that it could be possible within a few decades. Professor Bambi told the Daily Mail: 'The technology can be developed and it is just an issue of time, money, and motivations.' Black holes are among the strangest and most mysterious objects in the known universe. They are formed when enormous dying stars collapse into an ultra-dense point where gravity is so strong that not even light can escape. Under these extreme conditions, the laws of physics as we know them start to break down and change in unusual ways. The problem for scientists is that, since black holes emit no light or other forms of radiation, it is extremely difficult to learn about how they behave. Professor Bambi's proposal, published today in the journal iScience, is to probe the very fabric of spacetime by sending a spacecraft directly into the heart of a black hole. However, for this plan to work, scientists will need two things: a black hole close enough to visit, and a spacecraft capable of surviving the journey. For the spacecraft, Professor Bambi proposes using something called a nanocraft. Traditional spacecraft, which burn chemical fuel, are too slow and clunky to reach the speeds required. What is a nanocraft? A nanocraft is a theoretical spacecraft designed to reach velocities approaching light speed. Miniature probes weighing just grams are attached to large, lightweight sails. Lasers on Earth bombard the sail with photons to accelerate the craft. In theory, these could reach their top speed within minutes and achieve a significant fraction of light speed. Scientists have proposed that these craft could reach our neighbouring star system, Alpha Centauri, in just 20 years. Instead, a nanocraft is essentially a microchip attached to a large, lightweight sail. Lasers based on Earth or in orbit blast this sail with photons to accelerate the craft to a third of the speed of light. The nano-technology required to make this possible doesn't yet exist, and the required cost of powering the lasers would be exorbitant, but Professor Bambi isn't daunted. 'If we use current technology, the cost would be around one trillion GBP, so it is definitely beyond the budget of any scientific experiment,' he said. 'However, if we consider the trend of the past 20 years and we extrapolate this trend to the future, we find that the cost would reduce to something like one billion GBP in 20-30 years: £1 billion is roughly the typical budget in today's large space missions.' Unfortunately, this mission's biggest obstacle is outside of anyone's control. Professor Bambi says: 'In my opinion, the key point is that we need to be "lucky" and have a black hole within 20-25 light-years from the Solar System.' At this distance, it would still take the nanocraft about 70 to 80 years to reach the black hole and then another 20 to 25 years for its data to return to Earth. That gives a total mission time of up to a century, which, although a daunting challenge, is still a feasible goal. 'If the closest black hole is not within 20-25 light years, but still within 40-50 light years, it would be more challenging to reach the necessary technological requirements for the mission, but it would still be possible,' says Professor Bambi. 'If the distance of the closest black hole exceeds 40-50 light years, I am afraid we have to give up.' Currently, the nearest black hole scientists have found is Gaia-BH1 at 1,560 light-years from Earth. Although that is very close by cosmic terms, it's still much too far away for humanity to reach with conventional spacecraft. Instead, Professor Bambi's hope is that scientists may soon detect a black hole much closer to home. Our best theories about stellar evolution suggest that there should be a black hole lurking around 20 to 25 light-years from Earth. But since black holes don't give off any of their own light, finding this hidden giant will not be an easy task. As scientists get better at hunting for black holes, Professor Bambi says that we should know whether there is one within 25 light-years in the next five to ten years. If there is a suitable black hole in our galactic neighbourhood, then Professor Bambi believes this mission would be well worth the astronomical price tag. Black holes are the sources of the strongest gravitational fields found anywhere in nature, which makes them an ideal laboratory to test Einstein's theory of general relativity. Einstein's theories make certain predictions about how space and time should react to the push and pull of intense gravitational forces. However, many scientists believe that the areas inside or around a real black hole are different from what the theory predicts. By taking the first accurate measurements of these regions, scientists would finally be able to know just what those differences are. Professor Bambi says: 'The motivation of such a mission would be to test the gravitational field around a black hole, compare the measurements with the theoretical predictions of General Relativity, and hopefully find some deviations.' That could settle some big questions like whether the rules of physics change near a black hole, or if Einstein's theories even work at all under the universe's most extreme conditions. Black holes are so dense and their gravitational pull is so strong that no form of radiation can escape them - not even light. They act as intense sources of gravity which hoover up dust and gas around them. Their intense gravitational pull is thought to be what stars in galaxies orbit around. How they are formed is still poorly understood. Astronomers believe they may form when a large cloud of gas up to 100,000 times bigger than the sun, collapses into a black hole. Many of these black hole seeds then merge to form much larger supermassive black holes, which are found at the centre of every known massive galaxy. Alternatively, a supermassive black hole seed could come from a giant star, about 100 times the sun's mass, that ultimately forms into a black hole after it runs out of fuel and collapses. When these giant stars die, they also go 'supernova', a huge explosion that expels the matter from the outer layers of the star into deep space.
