Higher Education

Higher Education Policy

The school actively encourages and supports students in competing for places at top universities around the world. Many past students have won such places and are currently studying at Cambridge, Harvard, LSE, Imperial College, Australian National University, National University of Singapore, Melbourne and Cornell (ranked in the top 25 universities worldwide by a recent Times Higher Education Supplement survey).

A maximum of ten applications will be supported for each student. A UCAS (UK) application or UAC,/ VTAC application (domestic Australian) counts as one application. No more than ten certified true copies of relevant certificates will be provided for any student.

Detailed advice on the application systems in all of the countries to which our students apply is customised in booklet form for each student in accordance with his or her intended destination(s). This "Passport to Higher Education" booklet is supplied to students in their second term in Year 12, at a Higher Education evening which parents are strongly encouraged to attend.

Groups are formed for popular courses such as medicine, engineering and law each year to develop students' thinking and reading in preparation for their applications. Oxbridge and Ivy League applicants are encouraged to enter for Advanced Extension Awards in relevant subjects. Interview advice and practice is provided. Students are strongly encouraged to seek opportunities for relevant work experience. Arrangements are regularly made with the main hospital for work attachments for medical students. Students may "opt-in" to membership of ISCO, the Independent Schools Careers organisation in the UK, which will visit the school twice per year and provide locally some of its Careers Taster courses.

Both written and personal advice and guidance are provided for students on the preparation of personal statements (application essays for the US). Tutors and senior staff review successive drafts encouraging serious academic writing and evidence of commitment to the course for which the student is applying.

Displays of prospectuses in the Sixth Form Centre are rotated according to country deadlines. In Term 1, UK and USA and Canadian prospectuses are on display, with supporting material such as the Times Good Universities Guide, USnews.com Premium Edition rankings and the Macleans Guide. In Term 2, prospectuses for Australian and Malaysian universities are displayed, supported by guides applicable to domestic applicants to Australia (QTAC, VTAC Guides et al).

A Higher Education and Careers Library is maintained in the Sixth Form centre where students may take out material of interest through a formal issues and returns system.

The Higher Education provision is built upon a progressive delivery of Careers Education in Middle and Upper Schools and the Sixth Form. Psychometric testing and individual counselling are available to support students in resolving choices of careers and/or university courses.

References and school documents such as transcripts, personal recommendations, English Proficiency letters and Teacher Evaluation forms (US only) form a critical part of the applications process. In the interests of these documents being of the highest possible quality, they are prepared in consultation with all members of staff who teach or have pastoral responsibility for a student. It is therefore essential that adequate time is allowed between advice of an intended application, or request for such documents, and the necessary submission date.

Early in Year 13, letters will be sent to parents requesting them to nominate the countries to which their children plan to apply, and to indicate any particular areas of interest such as an Oxbridge, US or domestic Australian application, including notification of the relevant deadlines for US and Canadian applications. Should parents not be in a position to indicate these choices at that point, it is essential that they advise the HE department in writing of their child's intention to apply, using the checklists provided in the "Passport", either by the date shown on the checklist or two weeks before the application must be dispatched, whichever is the sooner. It must be emphasised that responsibility for timely submission of requests lies with parents and students.