Head of Oxbridge and Medical Applications, Dr Andrew Atherton explains the rationale for the day,

“The Academic Conference is a wonderful opportunity for students to explore specialist or niche areas of study, to actively engage with the arguments and intellectual material of each presentation and to finesse their ability to speak eloquently about their subject. All the students have been exposed to new and exciting ideas which gives them a basis to go away and do more research over the summer in preparation for university interviews next term.”

The Conference was organised around subject-specific panels so that students could deliver their presentation to other students hoping to read a related discipline, thereby giving everyone the opportunity to further their knowledge and leave with new areas to investigate.

Lower Sixth Form student, Georgia reports,

“The Academic Conference gave each of us the opportunity to research a chosen topic and present to other students interested in the same discipline from Wellington College and Downe House. There was a vast range of carefully researched presentations on a variety of topics from Black Holes to Modernism allowing us to hear about new concepts on which we can now do further research to broaden our knowledge over the summer.
The groups were given the chance to question the presenter and, in the English and History panel, we debated the question, ‘Can literature be innovative?’.
Everyone had carried out in-depth research before conveying very complex ideas to their group, which has given us a thorough preparation to discuss our chosen topics at Oxbridge interviews if we are fortunate enough to be invited next term.”