Downing College International Winter Program

Teaching fills the weekdays, with your pathway's academic components in the mornings and a Research Methodology and Academic Writing session every afternoon. Downing puts the total at 40 hours of teaching over ten days, plus more than 15 hours of academic visits outside the classroom.

The first Monday opens with orientation and a tour of Downing College. After that, each of four academic components gets two mornings in a row, and the last Friday has a final morning session before the graduation and formal dinner at Downing. First-week evenings are planned too, from a pop quiz night to a BBQ, board games, a movie and karaoke.

Weekends are blank on the timetable, but Downing's Programme Mentors organize evening and weekend activities, and the fee covers accompanied day trips to London, with places like Buckingham Palace, the National Gallery and the British Museum, plus Cambridge outings such as guided punting, the Fitzwilliam Museum and King's College. The session runs from 10 to 23 January 2027, with the final weekend set aside for airport transfers and flights home.

Your teachers are current University of Cambridge academics, whom Downing describes as Fellows, lecturers and researchers with extensive experience teaching undergraduates. Downing doesn't name the tutor for each subject or publish class sizes, so if either matters to you, ask before you commit.

The program is overseen by Dr Kamran Yunus, Downing's Director of International Programmes, whose team includes a Programme Manager and the Programme Mentors who run the social side.

Downing calls this a highly competitive, selective course and says it only admits students who show the academic ability to handle a challenging curriculum, although it publishes no acceptance rate or cohort size. You need to be 15 to 18 in January 2027 and able to discuss academic topics in good English, and the application itself has to come from a parent or guardian.

All of the selection happens online, so you won't need to travel to Cambridge for it. Downing says it combines a written examination with a spoken interview, and students who meet the standard get an unconditional offer.

• The form

  A parent or guardian fills in the online form with your academic details, their own contact information and a short personal statement.

• The interview

  A 10-minute online interview with a Cambridge academic tutor covers your subject interests and checks your English.

• The offer

  Successful applicants receive an unconditional offer by email, with a payment link for the enrollment fee.

The fee is £7,000 for the two weeks, and it covers nearly everything once you're in Cambridge: teaching, a single College room with bed linen, towels and cleaning, three meals a day, evening socials, the London and Cambridge excursions, a formal hall dinner and the graduation ceremony. Downing also lists a £200 application fee, which it deducts from the program fee.

Payment comes in two parts. The £1,500 enrollment fee is due within 10 days of the offer and counts toward the total, and the remaining £5,500 is due 90 days before the start. For the 10 January 2027 session that point fell around 12 October 2026, so if you apply after it, ask Downing how it handles the balance before you accept. Missing the payment schedule means the offer lapses.

Read the cancellation terms before paying anything. If you cancel without what the contract calls just cause, such as a natural disaster, epidemic or war, you lose the program fee, and a student sent home for misconduct gets no refund, which is why Downing strongly advises insurance.

• Flights and visa

  Travel to Cambridge and any visa or entry permission are extra.

• Airport transfers

  Free group transfers run only for flights carrying eight or more enrolled students. Otherwise Downing can book a taxi at an estimated £450 round trip, or you arrange your own.

• Insurance

  Comprehensive travel and medical insurance is required, because the UK's National Health Service (NHS) covers emergencies but not ongoing care.

• Spending money

  Personal spending isn't covered.

Travel is the first thing to sort out, because UK immigration rules and airline policies require students under 17 to fly with an adult aged 18 or over. If parents can't come, Downing arranges a qualified counselor from one of its partner international schools in China to travel with the group, and students under 17 from mainland China must travel with a guardian or join group flights. Students aged 17 or older can travel as unaccompanied minors, and other under-18s should confirm the requirements with Downing.

For 2027, classes and accommodation are both on the Downing College campus, with each student in a single room. Dr Kamran Yunus's team oversees welfare, Programme Mentors organize the evening and weekend activities, and students follow Downing's own College rules. Downing warns that rooms aren't secure, so valuables are at your own risk, and it wants details of any dietary, physical or educational needs at least four weeks before the start. It doesn't publish a staff ratio or curfew.

You leave with a certificate and a final grade, presented at the graduation ceremony. Grades run from A (excellent) to D (lowest pass mark) for each subject area you study, based on your written work or oral presentation, and Downing sends the result to each student directly.

That's a record of the work you did, not academic credit, and Downing doesn't describe it as credit. Its contract also says it can't guarantee any outcome from the program, so treat it as practice for university-style study, not a step in any admissions process.