Uni Genius 2021

2021 Progress Review

Uni Genius

We have had a number of good programmes on Uni Genius this year. Students are assigned to a University Preparation programme which is co-run by Generating Genius and either UCL, University of Cambridge or the University of Leeds. Students also attend Career Discovery programmes which are Industry Challenge Days, Work Experience, Soft Skill Academies and Group Mentoring.

Please see below the averages across programmes run so far this year, on the impact students feel they have had in terms of increasing knowledge in STEM and career options.

Area Surveyed

Averages across programmes

Increased knowledge about STEM degree or degrees they are interested in (university programmes were surveyed on this only)

63% very significantly increased knowledge about STEM degree or degrees they are interested in.

18% significantly increased knowledge about STEM degree or degrees they are interested in.

19% somewhat increased knowledge about STEM degree or degrees they are interested in.

Increased knowledge of career options 

72% very significantly increased knowledge of career options.

27% significantly increased knowledge of career options.

1% significantly increased knowledge of career options.

Future Operations

• Next summer, we hope to relaunch Junior Genius, our ground-breaking programme which supports students from age 14. This will allow us to make a greater impact by going back to starting at this age again and having even longer-term engagement than we do at present.
• Further national expansion to the North of England – As well as relaunching Junior Genius, our Pay it Forward Programme, starting in October 2021, will allow us to do this. 19 out of 20 of the poorest areas in England are outside of London and the South East. So for us to impact those who really need our support, we must expand to these areas.
• Algorithmic approach to mentor matching – We want the mentoring experience to be an even better experience for mentoring pairings than it is now. A lot of the success of mentoring can come down to who you are matched with. We think that the way mentoring is growing in our charity we need to enhance this experience. By the end of this year, we would have had 305 mentoring pairings on Generating Genius. Next year this is set to increase to 450 and we see a further increase in this space happening. We need to find a better way to improve the quality of mentor matching and a more time efficient process with the volumes we have.