Free university application mentoring for Year 12 and 13 UK Home students from structurally disadvantaged backgrounds, including low-income, Free School Meal eligible, and care-experienced students.

You should also read through the YEI UCAS application guide, which is particularly useful for disadvantaged students.

If you have any questions, please contact the mentoring programme lead: Hanzallah Hanif

The YEI Access & Mentoring Programme was founded on a simple observation:

Academic ability is widely distributed, but access to high-quality guidance and instruction is not.

Despite coming from a low-income, care-experienced background and having been educated at the only further education college in the UK to receive an ‘Inadequate’ Ofsted rating in 2024, I progressed to offers from leading UK institutions without the consistent and extensive private tuition and admissions support routinely available to more advantaged students.

This was not because the system worked well, but because I was fortunate enough to meet kind people who took the time to guide me when I had no structured support, and I am forever indebted to them.

At the same time, I saw many students with the ability to reach and excel at leading universities who lacked consistent academic and admissions support, and whose outcomes were shaped by that absence rather than by any limitation in ability.

As an economist at heart, I see this imbalance not only as a question of fairness or meritocratic integrity, but as one of allocative efficiency.

When access to elite educational institutions is shaped by income rather than ability, talent is imperfectly matched to opportunity, and some potential inevitably goes underdeveloped.

YEI Access is my attempt to contribute constructively by extending the support that made my own progression possible, in gratitude to the many individuals who took the time to guide and support me when I had none, not as charity, but as responsibility, and by playing a small role in ensuring that ability, wherever it is found, has a clearer pathway to the institutions where it can be most fully developed.

Hanzallah Hanif
Founder, Young Economists Initiative (YEI).

Programme benefits.

-A dedicated main mentor who stays with you throughout, from choosing what to apply for through to meeting your university offer conditions.

-Access to lots of mentors across different courses and universities, so you can get questions about universities, degree apprenticeships, and A levels answered quickly.

-initial strategy sessions with mentors at the start, so we can understand where you are at and help you decide your course choices, overall university strategy, and a realistic but ambitious plan going forwards.

-Supercurricular guidance tailored to your target university and course, so you know exactly what to focus on and what will strengthen your application.

-Personal statement support with structured feedback and multiple rounds of improvement.

-A level support to help you maximise predicted grades and keep your grades strong, with access to high-quality resources and materials that students often otherwise have to pay for, all aimed at helping you meet your offer.

-We regularly share external opportunities (work experience, insight events, competitions, programmes, and key deadlines), so you always stay in the loop.

-CV and work experience application support from mentors who have completed placements at leading law firms, investment banks, consulting firms, and hedge funds.

-Extensive mock interviews for Oxford and Cambridge applicants.
Junior Researcher roles at YEI for mentees who want research experience, which can strengthen personal statements and build confidence in your subject.

-A community of ambitious, like-minded students in your year group.

Our Mentors & Academic Backgrounds

The YEI Access & Mentoring Programme is a peer-led mentoring collective.

Our mentors are students who have recently navigated competitive UK university admissions and A-level examinations, and who now support Year 12 and Year 13 students through free tuition and UCAS mentoring.

Our mentors have received offers from, or are currently studying at, a range of leading UK universities, including:

• University of Oxford
• University of Cambridge
• London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE)
• Imperial College London
• University College London (UCL)
• University of Warwick
• King’s College London (KCL)
• University of Durham
• University of Edinburgh
• University of St Andrews
• University of Bath
• University of Bristol

These academic backgrounds reflect the mentors’ own progression through competitive admissions processes and inform the guidance they provide.

While we aim to support students across a wide range of subjects, YEI Access’s core strength lies in Economics, PPE, Politics, Philosophy, History, Geography, and Mathematics.

We also have mentors studying Engineering, Computer Science, Medicine, Natural Sciences, Sociology, and Accounting and Finance.

We will always try to match students with an appropriate mentor, but subject availability may vary.

Applications can be submitted using the form below.

Click here!