Maurice secures Cambridge place after leaving school with no GCSEs and overcoming drink and drug addictions

Now 22, Maurice also suffered from drink and drug addictions as a teenager but has been clean from both for almost four years and will start a BA (Hons) History degree at Cambridge’s St Edmund's College in September after sweeping the board with Distinction grades in our Access for Higher Education in Humanities course.

His achievement marks a tremendous turnaround for Maurice, who admits the prospect of university, let alone Cambridge, couldn’t have felt further away in those bleak formative years when he believed he was just “too stupid for education.”

It is, nevertheless, the fulfilment of an actual dream that our Access tutor Alison Willis convinced Maurice, who was also diagnosed with autism in his early teens, could still come true when he returned to Sim Balk Lane last summer following a very brief spell on Campus five years before as a Level 1 vocational course student. 

“At 16, when everyone was doing their A Levels and thinking about uni, I couldn’t have been further from the concept of going,” Maurice reflected. “I’d left school at 14.

“I obviously wasn’t meant to, but I just couldn’t get on with it. I was never in lessons really and found myself in Seclusion a lot.

“I genuinely just thought I was too stupid for education. I switched to another school from 14 to 16 but, even though I was enrolled, it was on and off whether I was really there.

“I was in a Pupil Referral Unit and I feel there’s a stereotype about people who go to those sort of places. People think you’re dumb or expect you to become a drug dealer and I suppose I fell into that a little bit.

“I had a lot of problems with substances and stuff up until I was 18 but I cleaned myself up and haven't drank or done any drugs for almost four years, so it’s been a big journey. Certainly, up until very recently, I didn't think I would go to uni, because I didn't have any GCSEs.

“That was a big thing in my head that loomed over me. It became sort of symbolic, because pretty much everyone has GCSEs.

“It's quite rare that someone doesn't have any at all and I remember the day that my former classmates got their GCSEs and just feeling awful. It was tough, but I ended up going back to do my GCSEs during the last academic year with a company called York Learning.

“I did my Maths and English and became the first person in York Learning’s history to get a 9 in English and they’ve been going for around 30 years so, after that, it became difficult to convince myself that I was stupid! I had something in writing now that suggested I wasn’t.” 

The next step for Maurice, who received support from the Adult Skills Fund via the York & North Yorkshire Combined Authority, was to enrol on our Access course last summer, where Alison encouraged him to keep dreaming big. 

“This sounds like it isn’t real, but I had a dream when I was 18 or 19 that I was at Oxford or Cambridge,” he recalled. “I didn’t know which, because I’d never been to either! But I woke up feeling really happy. 

“I didn't really think any more about it but, then, I came on this course and Alison flagged up with me right away that I should be thinking about applying for Cambridge. She told me she thought I was quite capable.

“She also knew that I wanted to be a historian and that going to Cambridge or Oxford can give you a real advantage in that respect. I was a bit resistant at first, thinking I didn’t want to set myself up to fail.

“I’d started thinking I could go to uni, but was certainly never thinking about Cambridge until Alison told me about other students she’d helped get there who had felt the same as me, so I thought I might as well give it a go and I’m glad I did. There can be a mystique about places like Cambridge that makes you feel they're sort of unattainable but, actually, there are loads of people who could get there if they tried.”

Maurice admits he is still coming to terms with the shock of being offered a place at one of the world’s most renowned educational institutes, but he has vivid memories of the moment he found out.

“I saw an email from St Edmond’s and knew, based on the time frame, that it was either going to tell me I was in or it was a rejection. So, it was a case of this is it and taking a deep breath before opening the email.

“I saw the first word was ‘Congratulations’ so thought, ‘OK, they're not going to say, ‘Congratulations, you failed’ and I did a little celebration. I immediately called Kierran (from my class) to ask him if he’d got an offer and he had, so then we did a big celebration.

“To be honest, I couldn't believe it for about a week afterwards. I was like, ‘What? I don't know how that's happened’ and I’m still struggling to wrap my head around it now.

“It almost feels too good to be true and that something bad is going to happen to stop me going.”

Admitting to a combination of excitement and nerves, Maurice added that he will welcome the presence of three of his classmates who are starting at Cambridge at the same time, too – Poppy Jeavons, Isaac Lees and Kierran (Horsfield), who has been accepted on to the same course.

He will also have the support of his new wife with the couple getting married this month – a wedding that was organised right in the thick of Maurice’s studies!

“It feels strange that I’m going there in September and there’s been a mixture of different emotions,” he confessed. “I am excited, but I've never lived outside of York before.

“It’s my home town and I'm from Acomb so, going from Acomb to Cambridge, is going to be a change. I'm not from a typical Cambridge background so I’m quite intimidated.

“I'm aware that I could come up against some challenges as a result of that, and that there could be some prejudice, but I'm optimistic that I can withstand that and it will help having the guys from the course there, too. I couldn’t have done it when I was 18, but my partner will be moving down with me, so that will also help a lot.”

Understandably, Maurice is a big advocate for Access courses and their capacity to provide individuals, who endured struggles during those formative years from 14 to 18, a second chance in education.

“I couldn’t have done this any other way than on an Access course,” he declared. “I’d have needed money to do my A Levels as an adult and I was able to get on the Access course for free, because of my age and not having any Level 3 qualifications.

“I think in an ideal world, when you turn 16, you’d be told you don’t have to do more qualifications right now, or start thinking about leaving the home town you’ve grown up in to go to uni. Everyone should have the opportunity to find out what’s going on with themselves first.

“Sometimes, that means you have to go through a bit of stuff, but it's a lot better if you’re going through that in your home town with your parents nearby, or other support networks, than being away at a uni in an unfamiliar place.

“I don’t believe Isaac should have to come here from Sheffield, because it’s the nearest Access course for him. Every town and city should have them as standard and I'm very glad that I live in a time period where Access courses exist, because none of this would have been possible otherwise.”

Maurice also feels that Access courses equip students with a number of skills essential for degree-level learning that other undergraduates don’t necessarily acquire from A Levels.

“We’ve learnt how to reference and I now have a concrete grasp of how to put together a good essay, especially with History,” he explained. “You’re not just recording events, which is probably a misconception people make. There’s plenty of scope for evaluating and arguing something."

Maurice chose English Literature, along with History, as the two main subjects he studied five hours each week on the Access course.

Highlights included learning more about the Transatlantic Slave Trade in History and, in English, studying an Emily Bronte classic that he now regards “as the best book ever written”.

He said: “I hadn't read Wuthering Heights before, but I just think it's incredible and I'm particularly happy that somehow, in spite of all our cultural distinctions in Yorkshire, we've managed to produce a book that profound and passionate.

“Its emotional level is not usually what you associate with our county. I also really enjoyed the analysis that Alison helped us get out of it when looking at class, gender and the environment and how it all comes together.

“For me, that was very much intertwined with History as well and I now think it’s actually the best book ever written.”

As part of Maurice’s application for Cambridge, he submitted two pieces of written work, choosing History essays he completed on the course, focussing on the slave trade and Apartheid in South Africa.

He was then asked to undergo an entrance exam and, from a list of questions, opted for one asking how modern society can still be shaped by medieval history.