Southern Universities Network (SUN)
What is SUN?
The Southern Universities Network (SUN) helps students explore their Higher Education options to enable them to make an informed decision regarding their next steps after finishing college.
SUN is a collaborative partnership of HE providers in Hampshire, Dorset and the Isle of Wight, providing outreach activities for schools and colleges. See further information on how the SUN programme can help the students.
The SUN Programme is part of Uni Connect – an Office for Students (OfS) funded project. The Uni Connect Programme was launched in January 2020 – a national initiative helping teachers and careers advisers to encourage young people to take advantage of the opportunities in Higher Education. Uni Connect offers a tailored and impartial approach, aiding schools to support students, their parents and carers to get a better understanding of their future options.
How can SUN help students at the college?
The college has a dedicated SUN Progression Mentor, who is also a Level 6 qualified Careers Adviser and provides support including:
- A dedicated careers service providing 1:1 advice and continuity for students throughout the year
- A google classroom specifically for SUN and FUTURE ADVANTAGE students (this is a group of widening participation students including those on free college meals, college bursaries, military families and young carers). This classroom offers tailored opportunities such as work experience, financial support, university summer schools, and further details on contextual offers.
- Trips and events for SUN students throughout the year – including lunchtime talks specifically on opportunities only open to SUN students (in 2023 we had talks from the Social Mobility Foundation and the University of Southampton Ignite Outreach Programme). We also have close links with WAMSoc, the widening participation mentoring scheme at Southampton Medical School.
- This year will be our second year of the Oxford University Society Mentoring Programme. This programme is offered by a group of mentors to support 15 high achieving students with their university research and application. Their expertise covers a variety of different subject areas ranging from Law to Medicine, Finance to Computer Science. The mentors offer focused support on UCAS applications to competitive universities including Oxbridge.
- Regular updates are posted via the google classroom and the careers intranet highlighting and available opportunities that arise and future events taking place.