Photographs TSI

The Tamil Students Initiative (TSI), a network of UK university Tamil societies, held its ‘True Potential’ university entrance personal statement workshop last month.

Held at Kings College London, the event saw current university students mentor school students into how to write an effective personal statement and go on to successfully secure a place at university.

This year's workshop, which follows the extremely successful event last year, was held in collaboration with Tamil Societies from across the UK - including Cambridge, Imperial, Kings, LSE, UCL, and others.

Volunteers from the universities spent a Saturday with year 13 students currently applying for university, giving them feedback on their personal statements and advice on admissions interviews and how to maximise their chances of receiving an offer from their chosen universities.

The university students spoke to year 13 students about their own experiences at their universities, in order to give the applicants an insight into what they would be studying and what the course entails.

“While our school has been working on helping us get into university, we don’t really get to see how university will be from a first-hand perspective. So coming to an event such as this, with so many older students willing to pass on their experience to us is massively helpful, especially for some of us who aren’t still sure of how going into university is going to be like," a school student said of the event, to the Tamil Guardian.

"We as today's university students know first hand how progressively difficult entering the top universities are becoming, and thus we only feel that it is only right if we pass on the knowledge we've obtained to future generations," one of the TSI event organisers, Sarujan Mahendirirajah said.

"Our intentions are not only to help Tamil students enter university, but also to facilitate development across the British Tamil community and enable us all as one to succeed in an increasingly competitive society," he added.

School students left saying they felt much more confident about the application process, how to write a personal statement. The event was again a success, and about their decisions for Higher Education.