Student charts a course for the stars after earning place at Oxford

A promising engineer is set to blast off on an interstellar career after acing A levels at Loughborough College and landing a place at Oxford University.

Alex Berresford, 18, of Loughborough, achieved star-studded results, earning three A*s in A level Physics, Maths and Chemistry and an A in Further Maths.

He is now on course to study an MEng Engineering degree which he hopes will be the gateway to a future working in space where he wants to work on technology to mine asteroids.

Alex said: “I am relieved to get those grades and get into Oxford!

“I hope that eventually I will be working for a space agency. NASA would be great. I really want to focus on how humanity can use space through asteroid-mining. At the moment, it isn’t really that viable, but I would love to work on the technology that enables us to mine asteroids for raw metals.

“The opportunities are massive. It would be worth trillions, reduce dangerous mining practices on Earth and sets us up for future, whether that’s stockpiling raw metals or building in space.”

Alex is now looking forward to getting to university to begin a course that he hopes will fulfil his ambitions and thanked Loughborough College for helping unlock his potential.

“I chose Loughborough because, out of the all the local options, I found it gave the most independence,” he said. “That was important to me as I knew that would set me up for university better.

“I was fed up of strict schedules and uniforms at school so, through word of mouth and reading the college website, I came to an open day and that confirmed all of the good things I had heard and read.”

He said the support and teaching was excellent throughout his time at college.

“I worked closely with my tutors on my personal statement which I needed for the interview at Oxford. That support was really good, plus they would quite often respond on Teams at bizarre times – that was great knowing that support was there.”

Alex said the freedom you get as a student at Loughborough College means it is important for students to get organised and own their learning.

He added: “The key is to be efficient with how you use your time, getting into the habit of using your free periods productively sets you up very nicely and leaves you much less work to do at home.”