On Wednesday, 13 April, 2016 the Cambridge Society, together with the Oxford University Society of Luxembourg and the alumni associations of the London School of Economics and the University of Warwick held an information evening for students in Luxembourg schools, their parents and teachers at the Ecole de Commerce et de Gestion on the Geesseknäppchen Campus in Luxembourg. This was the most successful information evening yet, with an estimated 250 participants from schools all over the country: the various Luxembourg lycées, the European Schools, the International School of Luxembourg, St. Georges British School…….
The new British Ambassador to Luxembourg, John Marshall, welcomed the participants, emphasising the strong interest of UK universities in encouraging applications from students outside the UK, and the very high quality of the education that they offer. Jon Beard, the Director of Undergraduate Admissions in the Cambridge University Admissions Office, explained why students should be interested in applying to UK universities in general and what are the benefits of a UK university education, what the universities are looking for in successful applicants, and how students should prepare themselves for a successful application. He also described the attractions of university life beyond the hard studying, with an excellent social life and a wide range of available activities. He went into more detail about the specific aspects of applying to and studying in Cambridge. Steve Brabbs of the Cambridge Society of Luxembourg briefly described the technical process of applying through UCAS to UK universities, and explained some of the support activities (for example, offering practice interviews to students who apply to Oxford or Cambridge) provided by the Oxford and Cambridge Societies in Luxembourg. This was the first time that the alumni associations of the LSE and University of Warwick were involved in the evening, so Lucas Carbonaro of the LSE Alumni Association and Jessica Whytehorn of the Warwick University alumni briefly described the attractions of their respective universities. The presentations were rounded off by Ann Cloos, a first-year student from Luxembourg studying Natural Sciences at King’s College, Cambridge, who described her experiences so far.
During the second part of the evening the students, parents and teachers we able to discuss with the speakers and alumni from the four universities who live and work in Luxembourg all aspects of studying at and living in UK universities. This is a most interesting and useful aspect of the information evening and is much appreciated by the participants. Light refreshments were enjoyed by those who stayed for this part of the evening.
These information evenings started as something focused exclusively on Oxford and Cambridge, organised by the two alumni societies in Luxembourg. It is planned that next year we will go further in broadening the evening to cover studying at UK universities in general, which will require different inputs. It will, however, meet the needs of a wider range of students in Luxembourg.
A big thank you to all the Cambridge alumni in Luxembourg who came along to the evening and helped to make it such a success!!
A World Class Education at Cambridge!
The largest audience yet, engrossed
