The University of London Union Islamic Society strives to unify higher education students across the capital by being the platform for projects which benefit the community as a whole. These efforts are exemplified by the Outreach project which is an initiative that began in 2006 as a follow up from our university open day. As a group of students studying a variety of subjects, including engineering, economics, medicine and law amongst many others, we found that we were in a perfect position to help school students achieve their aims of attending university and succeeding in higher education. We were particularly concerned about the inextricable link between poorly achieving schools in London and numbers of ethnic minority students and so we made it part of the Outreach mission to visit the most deprived schools that are struggling with academic results and support the students there.

We strongly believe that education lies at the heart of a successful society and that a comprehensive level of information regarding higher education and career paths should be both available and accessible to people from all backgrounds and communities. In order to achieve this, the Outreach project pools together a group of highly trained and motivated voluntary students which visit schools across London. Through a series of specialised presentations and interactive workshops we aim to engage and inspire the school students as well as inform them of the academic and vocational options they have and how best to achieve their goals.

Our efforts and professionalism in encouraging students from lower socio-economic and diverse ethnic backgrounds into higher education was recognised by the government body, Aim Higher who have sponsored us throughout the expansion of this project. Through their support we are able to have our own technical equipment to deliver powerful presentations at any school and have also been able to provide information packs to all the schools that we visit. We aim to inspire, we aim to equip, and we aim for change!

Over the past years hundreds of young students across London have benefited from this highly successful project alhamdulilah.

How can I get involved?
Get in touch to join the team. We are constantly developing this project at multiple levels. Our presentations and workshops are regularly reviewed as well as our style of delivery. We also hope to expand the outreach experience in the coming weeks.