Welcome to the Extended Project Qualification, that’s offered as part of Reigate College’s Aspire Programme.
My name is Ellen Walkinshaw and I’m the Director of Progression and Skills at Reigate College. If you’re on track to achieve mostly Grade 6s and above at GCSE, then you should be considering joining the Aspire Programme next term. As part of the Programme, you will have the opportunity to do an EPQ – in preparation for this, we’d like you to complete the following tasks over the coming weeks.
The tasks are organised in three distinct steps and should all be completed by Choices Day on 25 August 2026. This is to give you the best insight into what the courses will be like and/or help prepare you for them.
Please note, some Course Leaders (for example for Music) may release their tasks earlier, as they may form part of the College’s audition process. If this applies to you, you’ll be notified separately.
New Starters Course Tasks and Activities
| Release date | Suggested Completion Dates | |
| Explore your Subject | 1 June | 1 July |
| Get Going | 1 June | 1 August |
| Aim High | 1 June | 1 September |
The EPQ is a Level 3 qualification taken by students on the Aspire Programme alongside their other studies. More information about the EPQ at Reigate can be found at https://www.reigate.ac.uk/courses/extended-project-qualification/
Here are some examples of recent EPQ dissertation titles:
- To what extent is the cost of space exploration justified?
- To what extent is the ‘right to rent’ scheme discriminatory against non-EU nationals?
- To what extent is seismic cloaking the future of earthquake proof buildings?
- To what extent was society in the New England colonies shaped by religious practice and persecution in 1607-1790?
It’s also possible to submit an artefact for your EPQ. Below are some examples of recent artefact-based titles:
- Designing and building an electromagnetic launcher as proof of concept for launching an object into space.
- Designing an office space to maximise employee engagement and productivity in a London social media company.
If you’re on track to achieve mostly Grade 6s and above at GCSE, are anticipating joining the Aspire Programme and are interested in taking an EPQ, make a start by producing a mind map of possible topics you would like to research for an EPQ. If you need some inspiration, have a look at www.oxplore.org or https://www.ucas.com/connect/blogs/how-choose-epq-topic-and-title-epq-advice-2.
Look back at the mind map of ideas you created for EPQ topics. EPQ titles take the form of a question, so you need to start thinking about which of the topics on your mind map throw up interesting questions. Your EPQ question needs to stand up to four simple tests:
- There must be some debate around the question – so not a simple yes or no answer
- It must be a question that is feasible to research
- It must be neither too broad nor too narrow in scope
- It must interest and intrigue you – this is very important!
TASK 1: For the EPQ questions below, write down which you think would work as an EPQ title and which need re-thinking. For those that need re-thinking, suggest an alternative question on the topic.
For instance, “Does smoking tobacco have a harmful effect on health?” would not be a good question as there is no debate about the answer. However, if you were interested in this topic you could ask “Why, despite the harmful effect of tobacco on health, is smoking tobacco still relatively widespread in Britain today?” There is debate about this question, there is a lot of accessible research published on it, and the scope is appropriate (if it turns out to be too broad the question could be tweaked to look at in the last ten years, or to look at men or women, or a particular age group).
- What was life like in Nazi Germany?
- To what extent is humanitarian aid damaging to the culture of less developed and developing countries?
- To what extent is the manipulation of metabolic and cellular processes able to increase human longevity and lifespan?
- How far has American foreign policy changed since the end of the Second World War?
- Assess the impact of the appropriation of artefacts by the British museum in order to determine whether they should be returned to their countries of origin.
- What impact is the rise of electric vehicles likely to have on reducing greenhouse emissions?
- Is the earth flat?
The answers will be given in the Aim High section.
TASK 2: Using the four “tests” above, come up with three possible EPQ titles/questions based on topics you identified in your mind map.
TASK 1: Look back at your answers from Task One in the Get Going section and check them against these answers:
- What was life like in Nazi Germany? The wording of the question does not lend itself to much debate and would lead to a descriptive answer which would not gain many marks. A better question would focus on one aspect of life in Nazi Germany and how it changed, for instance “To what extent did Nazi policies about family impact on the everyday lives of the German population 1933-45?”
- To what extent is humanitarian aid damaging to the culture of less developed and developing countries? This was an actual question used this year and it produced a good answer but the student reflected that she wished she had focused just on Africa, as that was the continent most of her research ended up looking at.
- To what extent is the manipulation of metabolic and cellular processes able to increase human longevity and lifespan? This was an actual question used this year, which worked well.
- How far has American foreign policy changed since the end of the Second World War? This is far too broad – it needs a tighter chronological range (so maybe, how far has it changed since the end of the Obama administration) or a tighter geographical scope (so focus on foreign policy towards one country).
- Assess the impact of the appropriation of artefacts by the British museum in order to determine whether they should be returned to their countries of origin. This was also a title that worked this year – although the student had to make clear in her introduction that she was looking at impact on Britain and on the countries from which the artefacts came.
- What impact is the rise of electric vehicles likely to have on reducing greenhouse emissions? This would be a good question, and could be tweaked as the project progressed.
- Is the earth flat? This has a clear answer, so is not a good question. It could possibly be re-focused to ask “Why does a flat earth movement still exist?”
TASK 2: Choose one of the possible questions you identified in Task Two last time and find at least one source on the internet that you could use in your EPQ. We will do a lot of work next year on what makes a “good source”, and you will also have access to journals in College that you won’t have at the moment. For the time being, use Google or Google Scholar https://scholar.google.co.uk/ or try:
https://theconversation.com/uk – news articles written by academics
https://www.ted.com/ – engaging talks on almost anything
https://www.theguardian.com/uk – free to view online
https://www.youtube.com/user/NationalGeographic – National Geographic films
https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/ – searchable online collection of the National Archives
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/ – university-level lectures on a range of topics
Note down the details of the source (website address, author/presenter, date you accessed it) and some brief notes relating to your question.
I hope you’ve enjoyed beginning to explore what you might like to base your EPQ on if you join the College’s Aspire Programme.
Director of Progression and Skills
