Case Study: Heriot-Watt Unlocked
Anyone who was the first in their family to go to university knows that it can be difficult to even think about higher education in the first place. Whereas some children grow up with university-educated parents or relatives expecting them to follow in their footsteps, university is, for many, still a complete unknown.
Even when they do wonder about further study, the subjects they might consider are often shaped - and sometimes limited - by class, gender, and national or cultural background. Whilst female university students outnumber their male counterparts in the UK, they remain underrepresented in many STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) subjects, whereas boys (especially working-class boys) are underrepresented in higher education in general and particularly in medicine, health sciences, law, and the arts.
The reasons for these educational disparities are complex, but one lesson researchers have uncovered is that you can’t wait until pupils are teenagers before you start talking to them about their futures; you have to start when they’re young.
Knowing that children’s sense of what is possible starts forming long before they think about applications or careers, our outreach team has been working with local schools for several years to raise aspirations, encourage pupils to think about their future, and help demystify STEM subjects in particular.
Heriot-Watt Unlocked grew directly from this work.
Created through Heriot-Watt University’s schools outreach programme, the 32-page illustrated booklet was designed to help primary school pupils explore university life in a way that feels welcoming, fun, and real. It was developed by STEM School Project Coordinator Emilie Dufresne, brought to life by illustrator Melissa Gandhi, and made possible through generous donor support via the Mary Burton Project.
At the centre of the book is Fi, a fictional engineering student and student ambassador, who takes readers on a journey through Heriot-Watt’s Edinburgh campus. Along the way, children discover different subjects and meet the people behind them, from robotics and data science to psychology and aerospace engineering.
What makes the booklet so special is how personal it feels. Real Heriot-Watt academics appear throughout as illustrated characters, sharing their work in playful, imaginative ways. One might be solving a mystery to introduce data science, while another explores space engineering in an astronaut helmet. It’s academic expertise, but delivered with warmth, humour, and personality.
This approach does two things at once: it brings university subjects to life for children who may never have encountered them before, and it helps break down the idea that academia is stern, distant, or intimidating. Instead, pupils meet real people and real exercises in a booklet that is bristling with beautiful hand-drawn illustrations.
The pilot phase brought the booklet into schools across Scotland - urban and rural, well-resourced and under-resourced, and everything in between. Teachers were supported with workshops, and in some cases, visits from the outreach team or even trips to campus to deepen the experience.
The response from schools was immediate and heartfelt.
One headteacher from a rural school shared how powerful it was for children with little or no family experience of higher education:
Being from a rural community, many of our children do not have experience of university and this was a super project to introduce the concept to them in an engaging, diverse and age-appropriate way. I would highly recommend this programme to other practitioners.
A Primary 5 teacher in Edinburgh said:
“A very successful booklet that has been enjoyed by the class and has provided child-friendly information about university which I haven't seen in any other form.”
And perhaps most importantly, the pupils themselves responded with real enthusiasm, giving the booklet an average rating of four out of five stars. One pupil in Orkney simply put it:
“It was very nice. Well done, Heriot-Watt University!”
At its heart, Heriot-Watt Unlocked is showing children - early, clearly, and kindly - that university is not something reserved for “other people”, but something they can absolutely be part of.
If you’d like to support schools outreach at Heriot-Watt University, please contact Head of Major Gifts Andrew Mackinnon at a.mackinnon@hw.ac.uk.