As we concluded the first month of the school year, universities, alumni and experts from around the world came together at St. Catherine’s for University Week 2026, giving our students and families the opportunity to explore the possibilities ahead.

This year’s theme, Beyond the Brochure, was about looking beyond rankings and familiar names to explore subjects, pathways, university experiences and, importantly, the right fit for each student. Academic interests, the campus environment, teaching styles, and the overall community can all shape where an individual will thrive.

Through workshops, panels and smaller conversations, students and families gained something a brochure alone cannot offer: direct conversations, different perspectives and first-hand insight.

“The Futures team's aim is to help students approach their next steps with curiosity, confidence and a sense of ownership. In planning ‘Beyond the Brochure’, we wanted to give them space to ask honest questions, explore options they might not have considered and reflect on what matters to them. We hope such conversations help each student recognise that they have choices.”

Mrs Rebecca Demetriades, Head of Futures

Organised by our Futures Team, with the Alumni Relations Department collaborating on the Alumni Virtual Chats, the week brought the world of higher education directly into our community.

Alumni Virtual Chats: Our global alumni network comes back to St. Cats

University Week began with one of our favourite traditions, the Alumni Virtual Chats, and this year our alumni network came out in force.

More than 20 St. Catherine’s alumni joined students in Years 10–13 for a series of 30-minute online conversations, sharing their experiences from universities including Oxford, Cambridge, Stanford, MIT, Columbia, UPenn, Georgetown, Imperial College London, University of Toronto, UCL, St Andrews, Bristol, Durham and Exeter, among others.

Just as impressive was the breadth of subjects represented. Students could choose conversations spanning Medicine, Neuroscience, Engineering, Economics, Law, Psychology, Computer Science, Architecture, Business, Art History, Bioethics and the Humanities.

The real value was in hearing directly from people who had once been St. Cats students themselves. Alumni shared generously about their courses, applications, academic workload and university life, sharing not only what they chose, but what they learned along the way.

"University helped me break out of the bubble. Most of my friends went to the usual UK or US destinations, but I wanted to go somewhere different where I didn't know anyone, just to push myself out of my comfort zone and become truly independent."

Dimitra Kakkava (Class of 2020, Sustainable Business for Societal Challenges, University of Florence, Italy)

For our current students, these were conversations with people who had once been sitting where they are now, offering an honest and personal perspective on the choices and experiences ahead.

A huge thank you to all our alumni who gave their time and came back, virtually, to support the students following in their footsteps!

University Workshop Day: Exploring pathways, subjects and careers

Universities Week 2026 continued with an extensive programme of workshops for students and parents in the Upper School, with representatives from universities and organisations across Europe, the UK, the US and the Middle East.

Participating institutions included Downing College, University of Cambridge, NYU Abu Dhabi, Purdue University, Clark University, University of Bath, ESADE Business School, Parsons School of Design, and Les Roches Global Hospitality Education, alongside many others.

For students, the sessions tackled some of the questions that matter as they begin making choices. Workshops explored how to make an application stand out, applying to the US and UK, looking beyond rankings and finding the right 'fit'. Subject-specific sessions covered Medicine, Fashion, Design, Art and Luxury Management, Business and Hospitality, alongside opportunities to explore pre-college and summer programmes.

Parents joined the conversation too, with sessions on:

• UK versus US applications
• Medicine admissions
• Building a strong creative arts portfolio
• Careers in Business and Hospitality
• Career readiness
• The changing careers landscape in the age of AI

The day concluded with opportunities for students and families to speak one-to-one with university representatives in the Library.

Finding Your 'Fit': Five US Universities, Five Perspectives

The idea of 'fit' took centre stage when five prestigious U.S. Universities - Dartmouth College, Duke, Georgetown, Northwestern and Vanderbilt - came together on campus to deliver the engaging session for our community: Finding Your Fit: Five U.S. Universities, Five Perspectives. One Conversation, in the St. Catherine’s Upper School Theatre.

Hearing from these five highly selective universities in the one session allowed students and their families to consider what distinguishes one university experience from another and encouraged us to think beyond reputation alone, and to consider the academic opportunities, campus cultures and the local community in which they should envisage themselves learning, contributing and thriving.

The College Experience Panel: Different Universities, Different Experiences

Later in the week, the College Experience Panel organised by our Fulbright Fellows, brought the idea of finding the right 'fit' to life through four very different academic journeys.

• St. Catherine’s Fulbright Fellow Alexandra Odunuga studied International Studies and Political Science at the University of Michigan
• St. Catherine’s Fulbright Fellow Chloe Fatsis studied Computer Science at Brown University
• St. Cats alumnus George Pavlakis, graduate of both Princeton where he majored in History, and Cambridge from which he holds an MPhil
• Fulbright Fellow William Reed, who studied English Literature at Middlebury College, alongside Studio Art and Narrative Journalism.

Moderated by Principal Jon Perriss, the conversation explored what shaped each speaker’s university choice and how factors such as academic culture, size, location, flexibility and opportunities beyond the classroom influenced their experience. Our KS4 students gained insights ranging from life at a large public university and Brown’s 'open curriculum' to the liberal arts experience at Middlebury, and the differences between studying at leading universities in the US and UK.

The message at the heart of the discussion echoed the theme of the week: Look beyond rankings and familiar names and think carefully about where, how and what you want to learn.

Universities Coming Directly to our Students

Throughout the week, additional individual university presentations gave students further opportunities to engage directly with university representatives.

Representatives from St. John’s University, Boston College, Bentley University and the University of Chicago visited St. Catherine’s to introduce students to their institutions, academic opportunities and distinctive university experiences.

These smaller sessions allowed students from KS4 to Year 13, to move from broad exploration to learning more deeply about individual universities and asking questions directly of the people who know them best.

Beyond the Brochure

Across University Week 2026, our students for the opportunity to begin the year exploring a range of universities, subjects, countries, pathways and personal experiences.

They heard from university representatives and admissions professionals. They considered different application systems, subjects and career pathways. They spoke with alumni who had once been sitting where they are now. And they had opportunities to ask questions and begin considering not simply “Which university?” but “Which university is right for me?”

That is what Universities Week 2026: Beyond the Brochure is ultimately about: giving students the knowledge, exposure and confidence to make informed choices about their own future.

A huge thank you to every university representative, alumnus, Fellow and contributor who gave their time and expertise so generously.

And a very special thank you to our Futures Team for the tremendous work behind University Week 2026 and for creating a week of conversations, experiences and opportunities that brought the world of higher education directly to our students and families. The best part of Universities Week is knowing that this is just the beginning with many more university visits and conversations coming up in the weeks ahead!