Year 9 Girls Engineering Summer School

We’ll start the programme with a chance to meet your mentor, get to know the other students in your group, and explore Imperial’s South Kensington campus.

You’ll take part in fun ice-breakers and team-building activities to help you feel confident and ready for the days ahead. We’ll round off the day with a group challenge that lets you and your team showcase what you already know about engineering principles.

This summer school is fully funded (free for successful applicants), covering course fees, materials, and lunch.

As a non-residential programme, accommodation will not be provided, and participants and their parents or guardians will need to organise travel to and from the campus each day. Travel costs are not included, and it is expected that most participants will live in or near London (or have family in London they can stay with for the duration of the programme). 

If you are offered a place on the programme but travel costs might prevent you from attending, please contact the programme team at least two weeks before the start date. They will be happy to discuss your situation and support can be considered on a case-by-case basis.

For this programme, you should:

• Expect to study science and maths in your post-16 studies
• Be studying at least eight GCSEs (or equivalent)
• Be on track to achieve a minimum of five GCSEs at grades 7-9, including maths and sciences
• Be on track to achieve a minimum of a grade 5 in GCSE English Language 

This programme is funded by Imperial College London. It aims to support students from backgrounds under-represented in higher education. We consider a wide range of criteria when assessing applications for our programmes. As our programmes are often oversubscribed, the more of these criteria you meet, the more likely you are to be offered a place.

To find out what information we ask for in your application, what we ask your parent or guardian and teacher contacts to share, and how we will use this information to consider your application, please visit our eligibility criteria webpage.

Applications for the Year 9 Engineering Summer School 2026 will open on 12 January. 

General Guidance

Setting up your account

We use a system called Aspire to manage applications. You'll need to create an Aspire account before completing your application.

• If you have applied to an Imperial Outreach programme in the past, you can use your existing account. There is a forgotten password feature on the Aspire login page.
• If this is your first application to one of our programmes, we recommend you use a personal email address rather than a school email address when creating your account. Security settings in some school email servers will prevent you from receiving emails from Aspire.

Completing your application

Once you are logged in you will need to start a new application and select 'Year 9 Girls Engineering Summer School'. Please make sure you select the right programme when using the drop-down options. Some of our programmes have similar names, so double-checking is important. 

As part of the application form you need to provide details about:

• the school you currently attend,
• the subjects you are currently studying
• the course(s) you plan to study for GCSE (or equivalent). 

As well as providing information about your school and future study plans, you will be asked questions relating to the eligibility criteria we use to assess applications. Where possible, please try to have this information to hand before you apply. You will also be asked to write a short personal statement. This gives you the chance to tell us more about why you are applying for this programme and what you hope to get out of the experience.

As part of the application process, we will seek references from a parent/guardian and a teacher at your current school. Please speak to the individuals you would like to provide these references in advance, so you can check you have the correct email address and contact numbers for them and that they are happy to support your application.

References

Once you have successfully submitted your application, we will email your parent/guardian and teacher referees. They will be sent a personalised link to Aspire, where they will provide information to support your application.

The reference forms ask similar questions about the eligibility criteria and include the opportunity to provide a supporting statement. These statements can be used to let us know about other challenges you may have faced and/or what you might get out of participating in the programme. Teachers will also be asked to verify the subject/grade information you provided in your application.

Decisions

We will release decisions via email by 6 May 2026. If you are offered a place on the programme, or on the waitlist, you will have a limited amount of time to accept this offer and send back your conditional documents. Successful applicants will receive details on the next steps.

For information about the application process, please see our application FAQs.