Downing College International Specialist Program

Downing calls this a highly competitive, selective course and only offers places to students who show they can handle the curriculum, although it doesn't publish how many apply or how many get in. Beyond the age and nationality rules, you need to be currently in education and able to discuss academic topics fluently in English, because every essay and assessment is in English.

The whole selection happens online, so nobody travels to Cambridge to apply. Downing says the entrance tests are basic aptitude tests that need no preparation, while the interview is where you talk about your subject interests and show your English.

• Application form

  A parent or guardian fills it in, with your academic details, their contact information and a short personal statement, and pays the application fee at the end.

• Entrance test

  It's taken online and supervised remotely by Downing staff: a mathematics test for STEM subjects, or an English language analysis and writing test for humanities subjects.

• Interview

  A 15-minute online conversation with a Cambridge academic tutor about your subject interests and your English.

• Offer

  Successful applicants get an unconditional offer by email with a link to pay the fees.

The online weeks are pre-recorded lessons on Downing's own learning platform, about 20 hours in all, plus assessed assignments that come back with feedback. Downing suggests around two hours a day over 10 working days, but you can do more lessons a day and finish sooner, and the course opens four weeks before your residential session (14 June 2027 for Programme B, 28 June 2027 for Programme C), which leaves room to fit it around school.

The point is to bring everyone to the same starting level before the classroom teaching begins. Which online courses you take depends on your subject. In Downing's table, the science, engineering and math strands pair Maths with Research Methods, the humanities strands pair Critical Thinking with Essay writing, and Economics pairs Maths with Critical Thinking.

In Cambridge you have four 90-minute classes a day with several Academic Tutors, which adds up to six hours of class time and about 60 hours over the two weeks. Work on your research project is part of those daily classes.

Downing's example timetable from a previous year shows the rhythm: breakfast at 8:45 a.m., a morning session from 9:30, coursework before lunch, an afternoon session from 1:45 p.m., more coursework, then an hour on the research project before dinner at 6 p.m. Evenings bring social activities run by Programme Mentors, such as a barbecue, bowling, trivia and sports, and there's free time to explore the city. In that timetable the first Saturday is a day trip to London, there's a Cambridge tour and punting, and the last days are given over to final presentations and assessments, a graduation ceremony and a formal dinner. Subject excursions vary, from the Fitzwilliam Museum to the University Library and the Botanic Gardens.

Your classes are taught by Academic Tutors, who Downing says are University of Cambridge fellows, lecturers and researchers with extensive teaching experience. The tutors named on the subject pages are a mix of established academics and doctoral students. In Biological and Medical Sciences, for example, Dr David Willer, a Fellow and College Teaching Officer in Natural Sciences at Murray Edwards College, teaches alongside PhD candidates in Pathology and Pharmacology, while Economics lists Qianya (Anna) Xu, a Research Fellow and Director of Studies at Corpus Christi College, with a fourth-year Economics PhD candidate. Both named tutors in Mathematics, Data Science and AI are Cambridge PhD students, one in Pure Mathematics and one in the Engineering Department.

So you'll be learning from people actively doing research at Cambridge, and several of the named tutors are still working on their PhDs. Downing doesn't publish class sizes or a student-to-tutor ratio. The program is led by Dr Kamran Yunus, the International Programmes Director.

You leave with a finished piece of research, a grade and a certificate. With a specialist tutor's guidance, you choose a topic within your subject with a focus on the UN Sustainable Development Goals. You then write a 3- to 4-page report or essay and give a short presentation on it to your group and tutor on the final day, and your tutor assesses the work. Past projects looked at whether theanine, found in tea, could help with stress, how democracies can tackle climate change and whether hydrogen fuel cells are ready for cars.

At the end you get a final grade on a scale from A (excellent) to D (lowest pass), a feedback report and a graduation certificate from Downing College. That's a College award, not university credit, and Downing's terms say it can't guarantee any outcome from the program, so the real value is the project itself, which you can talk about and build on.

The four-week program costs £9,000, and with the £200 non-refundable application fee that's £9,200 before anyone books a flight. The fee covers the online course with its coursework and feedback, the two weeks of teaching, research project supervision, a single room in College with linen, towels and cleaning, all meals (three a day on weekdays, brunch and dinner at weekends), evening activities, the London and Cambridge trips, a Formal Hall dinner and your final grade and certificate.

Flights, visas, airport transfers, travel insurance and spending money are extra. Insurance isn't optional, because Downing requires comprehensive travel and medical insurance. Downing also asks families to tell it about any dietary, physical or educational needs at least four weeks before the start and to cover any cost of adjusting for them.

Full payment is due within four weeks of the offer email, or the offer lapses. The cancellation terms are strict. If you cancel before the start without what Downing calls just cause, such as a natural disaster, epidemic or war that makes travel unsafe, you lose the whole program fee. With just cause, Downing refunds the fees it has received. A student sent home for their conduct gets no refund either.