Almost four hundred high school students will try out campus life at Otago University in this year's Hands-On programme

The six day event aims to give senior students a taste of tertiary life by taking part in a range of research projects.

They include lab work, theatre and dance, and solving a murder mystery.

Conveyor Lisa Russell says the programme first began when a small group of science teachers wanted to promote the subject to young women.

She says they struggled to fill the books - and 35 years on, Hands-On had over a thousand students applying for a space.