Business and law summer school success

We welcomed 20 students on campus earlier this month to attend a three-day business and law summer school.

Our summer school is a chance for year 12 students to take part in a free project-based university experience. Students get a taste of what to expect if they choose to come to uni, as well as giving something to write about on their personal statement.

Summer school students took part in a number of general sessions about university life, what it’s like to be a student at the University of Brighton, and tips for writing a personal statement.

Participants worked on a three-day project where they were given a brief to come up with a campaign that encourages teenagers to spend less time on their phones. Subject sessions with our lecturers covered everything from interpreting the brief, to campaign planning, intellectual law and advertising standards, plus social marketing for good.

Working in groups of four, the summer school finished with each group pitching their ideas to our panel of lecturers who then had the tough decision of deciding which team had the best idea and pitch.

The winning team

The Bee Collective were our campaign winners with their community campaign to encourage teens to take up new ‘hobbees’.

Their plan for events around the UK included interesting activities such as pottery making, planting vegetables and bee keeping. At the end of the six-month campaign a social event, sponsored by Pizza Express, would allow participants to socialise and enjoy their crops as pizza toppings. All while raising money for charity.

They chose bees as a feature part of their campaign because of consumer connotations with happiness and a buzzing atmosphere, as well as the community aspect of a beehive.

Our judging panel of lecturers within the School of Business and Law loved their campaign idea and thought their pitch was well-constructed and explained.

Members of the winning team each got to take home a university sweatshirt as a prize.

The other pitches

The SRG Agency’s Get Out to Get Lit campaign was to hold a series of outdoor and sporting events across the UK. At the events individuals can earn points and rewards for taking part in activities, which can then be redeemed for festival tickets, sporting event tickets or for retail vouchers at Footasylum – their sponsor for the live events.

They also had a great idea to encourage teenagers to get out and about more by hiding additional points around various cities/towns on posters with QR codes.

Harmony Inc’s idea was to create their own app that promotes doing good deeds, with different challenges that physical, mental and social health for teenagers. Features included a step counter, a photography challenge, good deed challenge and meditation.

Via a feed, users would be able to see what their peers are up to and push notifications would be used to motivate users.

JSM’s Look Up campaign was an app that rewards users for not using their phone, allowing you to block out periods of screen-free time to increase productivity.

Integrated with Snapchat, the app surveys users to find out more about their interests and hobbies so that users can meet up in real life.

Summer school graduation

Summer school participants graduated on the final day of their three-day experience, in a ceremony where they were joined by family members and friends.

Congratulations to our Business and Law Summer School Class of 2023! We really hope to see some of you again next year.

Find out more about our summer schools

The University of Brighton runs a number of different summer schools each year – some of which are residential and other non-residential programmes like our business and law one.

Think you might know someone who’d be interested in taking part? Check back on our summer school webpages for more details next year.