Keble Subject Taster Days
An access initiative at the heart of College life
In 2023, Alex Karpinski sat in a lecture room at Keble as a Year 12 student, listening to Oxford undergraduates talk about what it was really like to study Chemistry. Three years later, Alex was standing at the front of that same room, hosting the student panel session for a new cohort of prospective applicants. “I could so clearly picture myself sitting there three years earlier,” Alex recalls, “listening to the students leading the Q&A and thinking, ‘that's exactly who I want to be.’”
That journey from curious visitor to Keble student and host sits at the heart of the Subject Taster Days, the College’s flagship access initiative for Year 12 students. Launched in 2022, the programme invites state school students from across the country to spend a day immersed in one of four subjects, offered on a rotating basis. Participants are selected with attention to deprivation and under-representation, so that the opportunity reaches students for whom it is likely to matter most.
Each day is shaped by Keble tutors, students, the Access Fellow and the Access Officer working together. Participants encounter the academic character of a subject firsthand, receive practical guidance on the application process, and — often in collaboration with University departments — gain a broader sense of what Oxford study and student life actually involve. Central to each day are Q&A panels with current Keble undergraduates reading the subject: a chance to put honest questions to people who have recently been through exactly the same process. Feedback consistently identifies these sessions as the most valued part of the day.
The outcomes have been striking. In 2025, half of those who attended a Taster Day went on to apply to Oxford, and half of those applicants received offers — well above the University average.
Zoe Todd attended the English Subject Taster Day in 2022 and returned as an ambassador in 2026. “When I attended in Year 12, I did not truly imagine myself there,” she says, “so to be in the position that I am now is incredible.” The day filled a gap that not everyone has a chance to think about: “The whole experience gave me insight into Oxford and the application process, insight that other people might get from their school or family members but that wasn't so readily available to me.”
Alex recognises the same thing. “Coming from a state comprehensive school, applying to Oxford can feel like an impossible ambition. I hope the prospective students were able to see themselves in us and realise that we are just like them.” The day also made the prospect of applying feel more manageable: “The experience made the application feel far less daunting.”
For both students, the day fed into their choice of college. Zoe arrived at her UCAS decision knowing more than most: “I already had some knowledge of Keble and the tutors, which helped me feel more confident and excited.” For Alex, it came down to the people. “I found it so easy to relate to the Keble Chemists, and they gave us excellent insight into their lives at Keble and all of the fun student activities on offer. Having compared many colleges on the open day a few months later, it became clear that Keble was the place for me.”
That both undergraduate students now give their time to host the Days is not incidental. It points to something the statistics don’t capture, namely a desire to pass on what they were given and a sense of continuity within the Keble community.
The Subject Taster Days sit within a broader access landscape at Keble that includes partnerships with The Brilliant Club and The Access Project, alongside the College's own school visit programme, which brings around ninety schools a year to College grounds for information sessions, advice, tours, and student panels. It is the centrepiece of Keble’s outreach work with state schools in the West Midlands. Taken together, these efforts represent a serious and sustained commitment to the principle that ability and ambition, not background, should determine who finds their way to Oxford.
