Monday, February 27th from 3-6pm – Whitmore High School will be hosting its sixth annual University Fair, organised by Gareth Thomas MP. This follows the success of Thomas’s fourth annual Careers Fair with Rooks Heath School, which saw hundreds of students in attendance speaking with Harrow businesses and employers.

The University Fair is one of the only events in Harrow’s calendar where local Harrow state schools have the opportunity to engage with 30 of the UKs leading universities including Oxbridge. Harrow has excellent schools with an estimated 63% of local school students going onto Higher Education. Until four years ago there wasn’t an opportunity within the borough of Harrow for these students to speak with representatives of the leading UK Universities prior to submitting their UCAS applications.

All the big private schools across the country organise their own University Fairs giving their students a significant advantage in the UCAS process as well as ensuring that they have all the information necessary to make the decision that will define their future for at least the next three to four years if not longer. With this event, Thomas and Whitmore want to even out the playing field a little to provide our school students with some of the same opportunities as their privately educated peers.

Not only will Whitmore play host to representatives of 30 of the leading Universities in the UK, talking to students individually about what their universities can offer them, the Fair will also be hosting a series of five key talks on Applying to Oxbridge, studying Medicine/Dentistry, Student Finance, STEM Careers and Degrees via apprenticeships (sponsored degrees). This will be a welcome addition to the already stellar work Harrow’s local schools have provided in ensuring their students are informed and prepared for the decision they will eventually make.

This year, once again, Thomas is hopeful to have representatives of Harvard, Yale, Stanford, Princeton and more U.S. universities confirming their attendance. They will provide students with the advice they need to identify if studying in the United States would be a good fit for them, how to go about researching U.S. universities and how to make an application. This is an exciting opportunity for students in Harrow to take a different direction to many of their peers and study abroad at one of the world’s leading universities.

Gareth Thomas, Harrow West MP said “Studying at one of Britain’s leading Universities like Oxford or Cambridge can be a goal for all of the students in Harrow, and not just the wealthy few. Academic and professional success should not be restricted to those who come from fee paying schools. It should be available to all in Harrow. Thanks to Head teacher Sue Hammond and the excellent staff at Whitmore High School for continuing to make this possible.”