Ogden alumnus: Safe Khan

I received an undergraduate scholarship in 2011 and in 2015 completed an Ogden summer internship at UCL London Centre for Nanotechnology (LCN) where I am now completing my PhD.

In summer 2018, with other students from the LCN and UCL Institute of Education (IoE), I developed and delivered a pilot tech & English summer school for refugees and unaccompanied migrant students, which The Ogden Trust helped to fund.

The programme was aimed at recently arrived refugees and unaccompanied migrant student whose low English-level was jeopardising their future prospects. The course included an introduction to coding and improving computing/IT skills, and activities to progress their English skills with a focus on English for science sessions. In 2019, with a further grant from the Trust, the programme was revised and repeated.

The summer school was a great success. We could see a large increase in each student’s confidence speaking and writing in English. The students were highly engaged with every lesson and were particularly inspired by the experimental science and programming classes. The students met many new people and made many friends, which will hopefully help them to settle into their relatively new environment.

We hope that we have now set up a sustainable scheme to teach English language, science and computer skills to refugees, young migrants and asylum seeking students. We are confident that the summer school will be led by future PhD students at the LCN and IoE for many years to come!

Safe Khan, Ogden scholar 2011
(September 2019)

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