Written by Alex Whitton, Bridging Project Lead Coach

Too often we hear and read of the barriers many students face to accessing opportunity. At the beginning of every Bridging Project programme I hear how participants are worried that they have gained their place at university by some mistake. Students can spend weeks of their summer preparing backup plans for when they don’t get the grades they were predicted. And when they do get the grades they didn’t believe they could, they then face the fear that “everyone else will be better than me”.

This year we have partnered with Murray Edwards College at the University of Cambridge, Balliol and Trinity Colleges at the University of Oxford, and the University of Nottingham to deliver our coaching programme to support students from underrepresented backgrounds in their transition to university. The students we are supporting have some of the lowest entry rates into university and are groups which have statistically significant gaps in participation and retention (Social Mobility Commission & HESA, 2021).

Being part of The Bridging Project’s coaching programme has many benefits for our students. Not only do they get additional support through monthly coaching sessions with a dedicated and experienced professional coach, where students get to explore a range of topics including accessing support services, developing their soft skills and integrating themselves into university life; they also get the opportunity to build additional skills and networks through regular workshops with subject experts and group coaching sessions with the Lead Coach for their university. 

We’re passionate about supporting underrepresented students and we love having the opportunity to share our mission and vision as often as we can. In May, we had the opportunity to do just this as our Founder and Director, Phoebe Praill was invited along to speak at The University of Oxford’s Access Forum to talk about how our professional coaching programme supports the students who need it most.

We are so incredibly proud of the amazing progress all of our students have made this year. The students that we support at The Bridging Project all come from under-represented backgrounds and are at a significantly higher risk of dropping out of university in their first year. Through our programme of 1-1 coaching sessions, these students all had the opportunity to develop key leadership skills including resilience, problem solving and confidence, develop long term goals and short term targets and build a sense of belonging at university in their first term.

The start of 2024 is in full swing and as we set the tone for a jam-packed year ahead, we’ve been taking a look back at the impact our coaching programme had at some of our partner universities last term.

The start of a new year is always the perfect time for reflection, and as we look back on a successful 2023 and an exciting 2024 ahead, we wanted to share our learnings on the power of coaching for university students, and why universities should consider the intervention for their students this year.

The first month at university can feel like a whirlwind - so many things to learn, new places to explore and people to meet. As a first-year student - especially those who find themselves as the first in the family to attend university, or without the same support network as their peers - giving yourself the time you need to settle in is really important; it’s a time to try new things, get used to being away from home and even learn more about yourself.