Since its inception, Zero Gravity has supported over 8,000 students from low-opportunity areas into Russell Group universities, including more than 800 into Oxbridge.[1]
In 2022, Seddon was named in the Forbes 30 Under 30 list for his contributions to technology and entrepreneurship, and he was honoured in the 2023 Birthday Honours.[2] In 2024, The Sunday Times featured Seddon in their inaugural Young Power List as one of "the 25 most inspiring people aged 30 and under in the UK and Ireland".[3]
Seddon has stated that, for most of his time at school, attending a prestigious university “wasn’t really on my radar”.[9] It was only after a radio interviewer questioned him about applying to Oxbridge upon revealing his GCSE results live on BBC Radio Leeds that he began to entertain the possibility seriously.[10] However, Seddon struggled to navigate the Oxbridge application process, describing the interview as “almost like arriving on a different planet”.[11]
Seddon was ultimately successful in receiving a place to study Philosophy, politics and economics (PPE) at Mansfield College, Oxford, and graduated in 2018 with first class honours.[12] Whilst studying at Oxford, Seddon received a £6,500 means-tested bursary from the university to fund his living costs.[13] Notably, during Seddon’s final year at Oxford, not a single student from his home constituency of Morley & Outwood was admitted to study at the university. Alongside his university studies, Seddon was an occasional contributor to The Daily Telegraph, where he wrote articles about reforming Britain's higher education system.[14]
Career
Zero Gravity
Upon graduating from the University of Oxford, Seddon founded Access Oxbridge, a mobile app that connected school students from low-income backgrounds with mentors currently studying at the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge.[15][16] Prior to the app’s launch, British universities had come under criticism for the number of students admitted from private schools in the United Kingdom.[17] In 2016, the University of Oxford gave 59% of offers to UK students from state schools, whilst 93% of all UK students are educated in state schools.[18] The University of Oxford spends £14million per year on programs to recruit applicants from low-income backgrounds, costing £108,000 per student admitted.[19]
Seddon’s app aimed to increase access to the University of Oxford and the University of Cambridge by matching low-income students with undergraduate mentors who coached students through weekly hour-long video calls.[20] Seddon built the app from his hometown bedroom and initially funded the initiative from the remnants of his university maintenance grant.[21] In its first year, 110 low-income students mentored on the app achieved offers to study at Oxford and Cambridge.[22][23] In October 2019, Seddon was given a Point of Light award for social impact in education.[24]
Media coverage of Seddon’s work attracted the attention of a number of social impact investors who, in March 2020, provided Seddon with £425,000 of venture capital investment to expand his work.[25] Seddon re-designed his app and relaunched it as Zero Gravity in May 2020.[26] Zero Gravity aims to increase social mobility by developing technology to identify low-income students and provide them with personalised support to win places at UK universities, including Oxbridge and the Russell Group.[27][28][29][30]
In 2020, over 1000 students mentored by Zero Gravity achieved offers to study at Russell Group universities.[31] Zero Gravity has supported 261 low-income students to study at Oxford and Cambridge since its launch.[32] In June 2021, Seddon received the Diana Award in memory of Princess Diana for social impact in the education sector.[25]
In December 2021, Seddon confirmed that he had raised a seed round of investment in Zero Gravity totalling £3.5million.[33] In 2022, he was named by Forbes in the Forbes 30 Under 30 list.[34]
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