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Making the most of your Global Summer School 2025 experience

Global Summer School is an incredible opportunity to experience life as a university student. Learn from Imperial academics, live in on-campus accommodation and explore the best of London. The programme offers all this and so much more in order to enrich your academic experiences and to prepare you for university and beyond.  

Attending Global Summer School? We’ve pulled together a list of tips to help you make the most of your experiences and the opportunities available to you on the programme.  

1. Immerse yourself in the university campus and student life 

Experience life as a real university student at Global Summer School. You will stay in our on-campus student accommodation in South Kensington and get a taste of what it is like to live away from home during your first year of university. You’ll work with current Imperial student mentors throughout the programme. They’ll show you around campus, provide academic and pastoral support, and give you insights into what it’s like to be a student at Imperial.

2. Get ahead in your academic endeavours 

By attending the Global Summer School, you’ll learn from Imperial academics and experience the university’s world-leading facilities. Depending on which subject you choose, this could include a visit to the Data Science Institute’s Data Observatory, a tour of the Aeronautical Department’s supersonic and hypersonic wind tunnels, a visit to a real clinical hospital or practical sessions in our computer suite. Through a challenging programme of lectures, seminars and practical sessions you’ll participate in more than 50 hours of teaching time giving you a real taste of what it is like to study at university.   

3. Form lifelong friendships from across the globe

We welcome more than 550 students, representing over 50 nationalities to Imperial every year. Throughout your two weeks at Global Summer School, you’ll have plenty of time to work together and socialise with peers from all subjects on the programme. It’s a great opportunity to exchange ideas, share experiences and to learn from each other’s perspectives. Make the most of your time at Imperial by meeting new people and creating new networks within the STEM community. Who knows, you may end up studying at the same university as some of your new friends one day.

4. Explore the best of London 

An exciting part of our Global Summer School programme is the packed calendar of social activities. There’s a reason why London is ranked the best study city in the world*. The activities planned for 2025 include a trip to see a show in London’s West End, a boat tour on the River Thames, a day trip to Brighton (a popular seaside town), a sightseeing bus tour of London’s best attractions and trips to the Science, Natural History and V&A Museums. 

Your journey at Global Summer School is just beginning. By embracing these tips, you’ll make the most of this amazing experience and come away with memories to last a lifetime.  

*QS Best Student Cities 2025

2025 student and parent information session

Our Student and Parent Information Session was delivered by the Global Summer School team and ran through information on how to apply, including assessment criteria to help students through the application process. Topics also discussed include an overview of the academic sessions and the exciting calendar of social activities.

 

Student view: Sinisa Milosevic

From participating in Imperial College London’s Global Summer School back in 2018, to mentoring programme students and graduating in BSc Physics from Imperial in 2022; the two-week summer programme has played a big role in the past five years of Sinisa’s life. In this blog he gives the inside view of Imperial’s flag ship STEM summer school.

Global Summer School takes place over two weeks, with the first week focused on a specific subject area. My field was Physics which covered topics such as oscillations, waves and computer programming. Taught by Imperial academics, I recall finding it a challenging but rewarding curriculum to digest in the space of only a few days. Thankfully the support from both the academics staff and student mentors meant there was always someone on hand to answer my questions. The teaching staff shared their subject knowledge with such passion and enthusiasm, making the content all that more engaging for us students.

The second week revolved around solving a real-world challenge within a team of students from other academic subjects, whilst using the knowledge and expertise acquired in the previous week. This was my first time working within such a diverse group of people and meeting people from all over the world. It truly opened my horizons and with Imperial being such a diverse international community I felt like it really helped me when starting as an undergrad at Imperial myself.

Getting a taste of student life

My favourite part of Global Summer School was the unique insight it provided to being an undergrad student in London, along with the incredible social activities organised by the team; from seeing my very first musical on the West End to our day trip to Brighton.
I was left with such a great impression from my time at Global Summer School, so much so that it had solidified my decision to not only make Physics my area of study, but to make Imperial my first choice when applying to university.

Becoming a mentor

At the heart of the programme are the mentors, who are current Imperial undergrad students. The mentors support both the academic and social side of the programme and played such a key role in my experience, that it prompted me to sign up to become one myself. I have enjoyed working multiple different sessions over the years both online and in-person. It has been fascinating getting to know all the students, helping to coach and support them as they each use their strengths to come together for the final project. Having attended Global Summer School as a student myself and watching them present their impressive final presentations always feels like a very full circle moment that I am proud to be a part of.

Preparing for undergraduate studies

I believe Global Summer School holds so much value in preparing students for an undergraduate degree, providing them with the independence and responsibilities that come with starting university and living in halls. As such a big city, London can often be deemed intimidating, especially for students that young. However, I really feel that the exposure to living in the heart of London whilst on the programme was really beneficial and made the move there that little bit less daunting.

If there was one piece of advice, I could give to students looking to apply to Global Summer School it would be to make the most of it and not be afraid to ask questions. It is the perfect opportunity to learn more about the subject you may want to study at university and get that first contact with Imperial academics and mentors.

Looking back at my time at the Global Sumer School, I would highly recommend to anyone looking into summer schools to consider applying for Global Summer School as you never know where it might lead to and you might even decide you like it as much as I did and choose to apply to Imperial when the time comes.