EPQ Trip to Lancaster University

As part of the programme for the Extended Project Qualification (EPQ), our Year 12 students were today welcomed by the library staff at Lancaster University to support their literary research.

In recent weeks, students have been narrowing down their project titles and areas of research, currently ranging from the mechanical engineering of F1 cars or Fourier Analysis in musical instruments, to Salahuddin’s strategic decisions in the Crusades or the impact of the financial crisis on modern banking.

With the support of the academic staff at the university, students enjoyed exploring the vast catalogue of over half a million journals and sources both online and in the impressive library stacks.

With wider discussions about effective referencing and the use of citations in their projects, the whole day provided students with a wealth of support and information to continue building their projects at this early part of the course.

Students also enjoyed the opportunity to tour the campus university and ask questions about life at higher education, with the group also being fortunate to run into two alumni, Michaela in her first year of Medicine and Hannah in her final year of Economics, both of whom gained the highest marks in their EPQ projects in the Sixth Form, which has consequently supported their transition academically into the independence required at higher education. It was an insightful and a very beneficial opportunity, with students taking large amounts of research away to now fuel the next steps of their work.