Students enjoyed new rhythms of learning today as they participated in Insight Masterclasses, two-hour sessions led by experts in a field or skill not usually taught in schools. For example, students were led through a crime scene investigation by a forensic lab professional ―and not just any crime scene, but the most controversial case to hit the tabloids since the OJ Simpson affair: the murder of model Reeva Steenkamp by paralympian Oscar Pistorius. Students also got to grips with the forensic fundamentals, learning how to find fingerprints on a plastic bottle and how to take a cast of a footprint.

Introduction to Architecture students worked with a material that is unlikely to produce anything very structurally sound ―they sketched bell peppers in a study of dimension and perspective. Later in the day they graduated to a more substantial medium in the car-building masterclass.

And finally, corporal punishment. Students debated whether or not to bring back the death penalty, and then moved on to a more light-hearted (but equally divisive) topic: cats or dogs?

To let off steam after a demanding day, students took a football for a kickabout in University Parks, or engaged in a bit of theatrical escapism.