The Brilliant Club

The Brilliant Club is a UK non-profit organisation that aims to widen access to university for students from under-represented groups.^[1] It was founded in 2011 by Jonathan Sobczyk^[2][3] and Simon Coyle, with partner organisations including The Sutton Trust,^[4] Teach First, Challenge Partners and Goldman Sachs. The organisation has offices in London and Leamington Spa and operates nationwide.

Activities

The Brilliant Club runs two programmes. In The Scholars Programme, doctoral and postdoctoral researchers deliver academic tutorials in non-selective state schools to pupils aged 10 to 18.^[5] Researchers delivering the programme are called PhD tutors^[6] and they are recruited, trained and placed by programme officers.^[7] During The Scholars Programme, pupils have seven tutorials with their PhD tutor which include weekly reading and writing assignments that lead to the completion of a final assignment. This assignment is marked thoroughly by PhD tutors and given a university style grade (1st, 2:1, 2:2 etc). Programmes begin with a Launch Trip at a highly-selective university, where pupils will have a campus tour, receive information advice and guidance from the university and meet their PhD tutor for the first time. The Programme finishes with a graduation event at another highly-selective university to celebrate the completion of The Scholars Programme.^[8] For the older pupils, PhD tutors design the courses based on their own area of research, whilst for younger pupils standardised courses are delivered.^[9] A third of places on the programme are reserved for pupils who have been eligible for Free School Meals in the last six years.

The organisation's second programme, Researchers in Schools, is a teacher training programme unique to candidates with a PhD, which began in 2014.^[10] The programme aims to increase subject expertise, promote research and champion university access in schools.

Expansion

The organisation began with a pilot programme in North London in 2011, and in 2013-14, they delivered programmes to almost 4,600 pupils in over 150 schools. Since then, the programme has expanded to schools across England, the Midlands, North, East,^[11][12] South-East^[13],South-West.^[14], Scotland and Wales. The organisation will deliver programmes to almost 11,000 students this academic year alone^[15] and will work with over 500 schools.^[16][17]

Conference

The Brilliant Club holds a yearly conference. This began in 2015, and was held in conjunction with King's College London and had the theme: ‘Where can we find solutions to break the link between household income and admission to the UK’s highly-selective universities?’^[18][19]. In 2018, The Brilliant Club will welcome delegates from schools and universities, charities and other organisations, as well as policy makers and researchers, to collaborate on this year’s theme, Measuring Up: Research, Evidence and Urgency in University Access and Student Success.^[20]

Recognition and awards

In 2011, The Brilliant Club was named the winner of a Teach First Social Innovation Award.^[21] In the same year it was one of the top ten Future 100 winners^[22] and in 2012, The Brilliant Club was listed as one of Britain’s 50 New Radicals^[23] by Nesta and The Observer. In 2013, the organisation joined Ernst & Young's Accelerate^[24] programme. It was used as a case study by Equity Ideas,^[25] and mentioned in Ofsted's 2015 report 'The Most Able Students, an update in progress since June 2013'.^[26] In December 2015, the charity was named as one of The Guardian's Charity Award winners for 2015.^[27]

The Scholar

The Scholar^[28] is The Brilliant Club's academic journal of outstanding pupil work. It is published termly and showcases some of the excellent work produced by pupils on The Scholars Programme and Uni Pathways. All assignments nominated for publication are reviewed by an expert panel of PhD researchers and only the highest scoring are published.

We are delighted to celebrate our pupils' work and achievements in the country's only academic journal dedicated to publishing university-style assignments authored by school pupils. Publishing original work is an important part of academia and we are excited to introduce our pupils not only to the world of research but also to the next stages of peer review and publication in academic journals.

References