This year’s Extended Project Qualification (EPQ) cohort is celebrating excellent results, with 100% of candidates achieving A* to A grades and 75% of boys achieving an A*.
The EPQ is open to A-Level boys and allows them to voluntarily choose to build on their Bedford School Independent Project (BSIP), completed in the Lower Sixth, and gain an additional A-Level qualification. Boys have a free choice and refine their research question as their reading develops. The group produced an eclectic range of titles encompassing the arts, humanities and social sciences and widespread use of higher level skills were seen in the dissertations produced.
Dissertations have been ambitious in scope and boys have developed their skills of critical analysis, extended writing and self-evaluation. Alex Bird (Will human physiology and psychology prove to be a major limiting factor to long-term space exploration?) and Jamie Brock (How did a man with almost no political experience beat the ‘best qualified candidate of all time’ to the US Presidency? An investigation into the causes of the 2016 US Presidential Election result) were singled out for having produced dissertations of an especially high quality.
Some of the other topics included:
- Jeevan Sandhu on the biochemical behaviour and structure of the Ebola virus
- Mohammed Tassadaq on the role of genetics in the future of medicine
- Alexander Plyushchenko on monetary history, contemporary monetary challenges and viable solutions
- Benjamin Wilshaw-Quinn (last year’s BSIP Winner), on the comic book artist Jim Lee’s industry impact
- Oscar Tipper on the evolving aims and geopolitical resonance of the Eurovision Song Contest.
All boys challenged themselves to produce multifaceted and interdisciplinary work well outside of the usual confines of the syllabus utilising the high-quality research facilities available in the school library and some research conducted in China and Russia. For example, Han Yui Ho designed and completed a qualitative research project in rural China last summer in support of his work on Land and Household Registration System Reform.
There are various entry points throughout the year when boys can submit their EPQ project work; further results will be published in August of this year.