The focus of this paper is an evaluation of a week long summer school held at Canterbury Christ Church University in July 2007 aimed at young men from ethnic minorities. It begins with an outline of England’s Aimhigher policy and a statistical review of the current university participation rates of young people from ethnic minorities. This includes the UK government’s aim to have towards 50% of young people participating in HE by 2010. The statistics show that whilst students from ethnic minorities do well overall in relation to university entrance, certain groups fare badly; amongst these are some groups of young men. A rationale for the summer school is then given against the theoretical backdrop of social constructivism and in particular collectivist interpretations of Vygotsky’s (1978) concept of the zone of proximal development; Lave and Wenger’s (1991) legitimate peripheral participation and Engeström’s (2001) activity theory. The aims and content of the summer school are then described.

The methodology for evaluating the summer school was interpretivist and the method was qualitative as it sought to examine the thoughts and feelings of the students in relation to going to university. All participating students were asked to complete a questionnaire with open questions before and after the summer school, in order to find out what they felt they had learned during the week. Before completing the questionnaires at the end of the summer school, they also took part in small group discussions to give them the opportunity to think about their experiences and their learning.

The findings from the evaluation are given, showing the ways in which the young people learned about themselves; whether or not they saw university as being for them and how their views on this changed as a result of participating in the summer school. The evaluation shows that if young people are given the opportunity to participate in university life, and if this experience is supportive, they begin to see themselves differently. The voice of the young people in relation to their concerns about university life is highlighted, and the vital role of mentors who can relate well to young people is emphasised.