Univenture
What is Univenture?
New for 2026, Univenture is a programme designed to support learners with care experience to consider higher education. Aimed
at students in Years 8, the initiative consisted of three on-campus days at the University of Warwick, offering early and repeated exposure to university life.
The programme was designed according to three main pillars: Connection, Exploration, Resilience and celebration which ensures that the programme is fully tailored to the needs of students with care experience.
The programme includes:
- Interactive workshops creatively exploring young people's sense of self and identities
- Guest facilitators from within and outside the University of Warwick
- Care experienced guest speaker sessions
- IAG surrounding Higher Education delivered in a fun and age-appropriate way
Univenture Programme Structure
Connection
Univenture's first campus day focuses on 'Connection', whereby young people form connections with ThinkHigher and with their peers.
Young people take part in an interactive scavenger hunt style campus tour led by university student ambassadors, participate in an identity discovery lego workshop, and close the day with a postcard reflection session where young people set goals for themselves before receiving their postcards at the end of the project.
Exploration
On Campus Day 2, young people reflect on their aspirations and discover new possibilities of potentially studying at university if they decide it is an option for them. Young people engaged in a WMG-led engineering taster session on 3D model design and explored ways to budget at university by taking part in a 'Keys to Campus Life' workshop.
Young people also received an inspirational talk by a care experienced current undergraduate student at the University of Warwick who spoke about their journey to Higher Education as someone with care experience.
Resilience and Celebration
The last campus day focuses on discovering strategies to build resilience that can be applied to home and school life. This year on Univenture, young people engaged in an interactive workshop delivered by Lemon Pop in which they designed canvases as a celebratory expression of their individual identities.
The final day closes with an exciting award ceremony with staff and student nominated awards and prizes.
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Like what you see?
If you are a guest facilitator or a virtual school who is interested in getting involved in Univenture in the future, please contact us via info@thinkhigher.ac.uk.