Getting the Advert to Students

Consider students who are usually underrepresented:

• Mature students
• Estranged
• Students responsible for Care
• Students with a disability
• Commuter students
• Care leavers

Considerations

If you think there is a chance that your role may rely on 'insider' knowledge- for example, you keep getting similar students applying, often this is a result of those 'in the know'. These are active students, often more involved/aware than the average student who are seeing, applying and therefore succeeding in being offered (often multiple) roles.

Consider the routes of advertisements you're taking, as well as how you're encouraging applications! Is it possible to arrange networking/in-person meeting with a few people operating in the project/area of work to offer students a chance to meet them beforehand to help understand what they may need to know before the application.

Try to lower the barrier to engagement, and to encourage those who may be initially nervous to apply, by creating multiple touch points you may find a more diverse range of applicants.

Approach

There are a lot of routes for sharing your role more widely. Remember to consider who you are trying to reach, and if there is another route you may be able to reach them through. Some routes that exist for sharing roles wider could be by asking the following to share wider:

• Departmental newsletters (including those outside of your own department)
• Student Newsletter sent by the central communications team
• Digital screens across campus
• Departmental Administrators or Heads of Departments- both for academic and for professional services
• Faculty reps through the Students' Union may be willing to share the role through their networks
• You could consider doing a call out it through some of the existing staff Teams Networks, or sharing through some of the student ones:
  • Professional Services Excellence Network (staff network)
  • Widening Participation Staff Network (staff network)
  • International Student Careers Club (student network)
• Some departments may be able to help with reaching under-represented groups:
  • Widening Participation team (estranged students, students responsible for care, care leavers, students with a disability)
  • Centre for lifelong learning (mature students)
  • Students' Union full and part-time officers (a vast variety of students)
    • The part-time officers in particular may serve a student group that is under-represented
• Depending on the opportunity, you could also consider reaching out to appropriate student societies or sports teams
  • Remember, there are societies for a lot of different topics, and there may be one that has the skill set you need for your role!

For some food for thought, you could also check out the different groups listed in the Inclusive Education Resources and Training pages.Link opens in a new window