In the 2025 admissions cycle, 72% of Clare's UK offers were made to students attending state schools, and 19% of our UK offers were made to students living in the bottom two quintiles of the Index of Multiple Deprivation (IMD), contributing to a student body that reflects the vast array of backgrounds, areas, and experience from which academic talent can grow.
Outreach at Clare College is led by Libby Beckett (Outreach and Admissions Officer), Emma Lézé (Schools Liaison Officer) and Ed Turner (Tutor for Access and Outreach).
We are committed to continuing to increase the number of bright students from historically underrepresented backgrounds who apply to, and are admitted by, the University of Cambridge, including Clare College.
We work with young people who attend schools or live in regions with a limited history of sending students to Oxford and Cambridge, those who belong to an ethnic minority group with lower rates of progression to Higher Education, or those from more socioeconomically disadvantaged backgrounds, who may not have a family tradition of university.
You can read more about the Widening Participation criteria we use for many of our programmes here.
Our work includes:
- School day visits to Cambridge for high-achieving students
- Talks and workshops in schools and online
- Subject-focused webinars and online programmes
- Four annual residentials, including Cambridge Future Museum Voices, HE+, and STEM SMART
- Online and in-person events for teachers and advisors
Area Links Scheme
Every part of the UK is linked with a Cambridge College through the University Area Links Scheme, which gives schools and colleges in each area a 'first port of call' contact at the University. Through this scheme, Clare works particularly closely with schools and colleges in the following four areas:
- Coventry
- Warwickshire
- The London Borough of Hackney
- The London Borough of Tower Hamlets
If you are a teacher or advisor in one of the areas above, please contact us to find out more about how we can support your students, or read more here.
We also offer a wide range of nationwide opportunities for young people and their teachers across the UK. Please use the links below to find out more.
See what's been going on at Clare in Outreach recently:
A Year 12 academic taster session in the Clare Fellows' Library in June 2024, part of Secret Histories
A Year 10 school visit to Clare in April 2023
Participants in the Year 12 STEM SMART residential at Clare in August 2024
Year 12 students on a rooftop tour of the David Attenborough Building during the Cambridge Future Museum Voices residential (April 2023)
Some Year 12 students who participated in the (De)constructing Identity: Arts & Humanities at University online programme were invited to Clare for the day. Here they are handling artefacts at the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology (January 2025)
Meet the Outreach Team
Libby Beckett, Outreach and Admissions Officer: I grew up in Lincolnshire and joined Clare in 2021 following an undergraduate degree in Modern and Medieval Languages at the University of Cambridge. As Clare's Outreach and Admissions Officer, I'm responsible for overseeing and evaluating our nationwide academic programmes, and I support the operations of the undergraduate admissions process.
The highlight of my time at Clare so far has been developing and running Cambridge Future Museum Voices, our innovative academic enrichment programme delivered in collaboration with the Museum of Zoology, which offers young people a platform to share issues that matter to them in a fully-funded public exhibition.
Emma Lézé, Schools Liaison Officer: I grew up in Norfolk and came to Cambridge in 2018 to study Education, English, Drama and the Arts (now simply called Education). I loved my undergraduate years so much that I stayed in Cambridge to complete my MPhil in Critical Approaches to Children’s Literature. Following a brief stint as a teaching assistant and apprenticeships administrator, I joined Clare as the Schools Liaison Officer in 2024.
Having attended a state comprehensive school and benefitted from Cambridge-led outreach work myself, I understand the importance of providing students with opportunities to learn more about Higher Education and the University of Cambridge. To me the highlight of this work is getting to speak directly with young people about Higher Education, especially those moments where students realise that Cambridge could be an option for them. It’s a privilege to support individuals as they work out what they want to do with their futures - whether that means going to university or not; which course might suit them best; and what they can do to begin moving in the right direction.
Ed Turner, Tutor for Access and Outreach: I am a conservation scientist, who researches strategies that can be employed to conserve species diversity and healthy ecosystem functioning both in the UK and abroad. In particular, I am interested in understanding how landscapes can be managed to maintain biodiversity and healthy functioning ecosystems, while still allowing agricultural development to take place.
Outside of my research, I enjoy science communication, particularly about the natural world and conservation. As part of this, I am Tutor for Access and Outreach at Clare College, manage the Public Engagement Team at the University Museum of Zoology, and am chairman of the Cambridge Local Group of the Wildlife Trust.
