Throughout January, our students were given the unique opportunity to attend the very first Farnborough Ideas Expo - a series of masterclasses delivered by university academics who are leading researchers in their fields.  

This was the first year of the Expo and over three weeks, the College hosted 19 fascinating stand-alone lectures, many adapted from sessions aimed at second and third year undergraduate students.  

Topics included ‘Prehistoric cannibalism, what did it mean?’ with the University of Brighton, ‘Graffiti and Piracy: Can you pirate a Banksy?’ from Royal Holloway, University of London and ‘Pascal’s Triangle’ from the University of Nottingham.  Other lectures covered, ‘The Art of Comedy Writing’, ‘A crash course on the Big Bang Theory’ and ‘Jurassic Park’.

Assistant Principal for Quality, Simon Reigh, who attended a lecture delivered by Dr Benoit Dillet from the University of Bath, commented, “Students were able to practise their listening and note-taking skills during this thought-provoking lecture on ‘The Impact of the terrorist threat in France: perceptions and realities’.  They asked questions that showed a level of sophistication you would expect to see at undergraduate level.  Huge thanks goes to the academics who stimulated such high levels of intellectual curiosity in our students.  This has been an invaluable experience for them.”

Christine Eustace, Director of Community Engagement and Employability said, “I am delighted with the keen interest and support from the universities and speakers involved, but most importantly grateful to Helen Pople, HE Coordinator within the College’s Prospects team, who put so much effort into working with all the academics in order to create such a unique, diverse and exciting programme.”

Thank you to all the academics who delivered lectures as part of the Farnborough Ideas Expo and to their respective universities for supporting this event - each talk encouraged our students to discover and extend their academic interests outside of their normal programme of study. We look forward to the 2020 Farnborough Ideas Expo.