Dear all,

A quick reminder that the deadline for bids from UK universities to host the 2016 training course for high-scoring UK Linguistics Olympiad participants is 7th December 2015.

To register your interest, please complete the form at:

http://bit.ly/1NrOZj3

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Full call

The UK Linguistics Olympiad is a competition that challenges school pupils to crack language-based puzzles. In 2015, there were just over 1400 participants in the advanced paper, from which 20 were shortlisted for the national team that participates in the annual International Linguistics Olympiad in July. Despite the relative youth of the UK Linguistics Olympiad, the national team was exceptionally successful this year, taking in two golds, one silver, a bronze, three honorable mentions and the top spot in the team competition.

The Olympiad currently organises a residential course for shortlisted participants as round 2 of the advanced paper in March, hosted each year by a UK Linguistics department. However, as the main aim for future years is to grow the overall number of participants, particularly amongst schools in the state sector, the UK Linguistics Olympiad is also instituting a 3-day training course for pupils from state-maintained schools, to be held the first week of each September.

The first edition of the training course was held at Corpus Christi college Cambridge in September 2015. Besides sessions specifically focusing on olympiad puzzles, there were sessions dedicated to Linguistics in higher education, including a general session introducing the discipline, a Q&A session with graduate students in the department and a short Q&A session with an admissions tutor. The participants are all from state-maintained schools, from a wide range of subject backgrounds, and are selected on the basis of their score in the round 1 advanced paper and on their age, i.e. participants must have at least one year of schooling remaining.

We welcome bids from any university in the UK. Future calls are anticipated on a yearly basis for both the September training course and, from 2018 onwards, for the round 2 residential course.

The UK Linguistics Olympiad will contribute financial resources up to £2000, as well as tutors and some administration (timetabling, liaising with participants and tutors).

The host institution will need to provide:
- Lodging and full board for 20 school pupils and c.5 tutors
- Refreshments during breaks
- 1 teaching room with AV equipment and 1 social room
- 1-2 social activities (in 2015: movie night and punting)
- Speakers for Q&A sessions on Linguistics/admissions if desired

To register your interest, please complete the form below before 7th December 2015.

http://bit.ly/1NrOZj3

If you have any questions, please contact Jessica Brown at jb789 at cam.ac.uk.

To find out more about the UK Linguistics Olympiad, go to: www.uklo.org