Student Recruitment

https://youtu.be/-TPDm62z4pY

Access and Outreach

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About Access and Outreach

Our goal is to widen access to university and in doing so, to increase the number of under-represented and less advantaged (both socio-economically and educationally) students at York.

We aim to support students: 

• From a Black, Asian, or Minority Ethnic background 
• With experience of public care 
• With a disability or long-term health condition 
• From a military service family 
• Who are young carers
• Who are estranged students
• Seeking asylum in the UK or who have been granted refugee status 
• Who are first-generation students (parents did not attend university) 
• Who live in a neighbourhood with low progression to higher education 
• Who have a household income below £42,875 or eligible for free school meals 
• Who attended a school or college that achieved below the national average 

How do we do this? 

We offer a variety of programmes, working with schools and colleges, teachers and students from around the UK. Read about some of these below, and find out more on our website.

Pre-16 

The Shine programme and Roots to Success support students from Year 7 through to Year 11 building their knowledge, exposing them to HE, and exploring their options. Student Ambassadors get involved in a number of ways, including attending school visits with us, creating content for our online activities and answering questions from students. 

Post-16

Next Step York and YorWay to York offer tailored activities for students. They have the opportunity to work with a Student Assistant who will offer advice and guidance throughout the programme, and help them to design their own personalised programmes. Student Ambassadors support us through a range of roles, from being Student Assistants, to working as Intern to create content, to leading online sessions and answering questions from students. 

Black Access is a student-led programme, designed ‘by Black students, for Black students.’ It aims to encourage Black students from around the UK to learn more about York, and develop their skills and knowledge by working alongside current students. Student Ambassadors undertake various activities, from planning and design, to creating content as an Intern, leading online sessions and delivering live sessions with schools and community groups. 

York Experience Summer School (YESS) is a residential summer school which gives further education students the opportunity to experience university life on our campus. Student Ambassadors get involved in various roles, from working as Residential Assistants, to leading live social sessions, creating resources and content, answering questions and offering support. 

How can you get involved? 

Our programmes are varied and offer lots of opportunities for our Student Ambassadors to get involved. Some of our popular work opportunities include: 

• Content creation and editing - this could include writing blogs, or creating and editing vlogs and videos.
• Social Media takeovers - our students regularly ‘takeover’ our Instagram to answer questions, share a ‘day in the life’ and engage students.
• Event support - this might involve helping with school visits, online events and Q&A sessions, or campus visits.
• Admin tasks - this might include help with data gathering or reporting tools - we’ll give you the training you need. 
• Residential Assistant - usually you will have a group of students to look after and support throughout their time on campus.
• Intern - this role is often attached to a particular project, where you get to create content, attend team meetings and provide more in-depth support.
• Mentor - this role gives you the chance to regularly speak with students and answer any questions they have, and give advice based on your own experiences. 
• Student Supporter or Assistant - you will be matched with a student and support them throughout  their year on their programme.

There are many more opportunities that come up throughout the year, and you can choose the ones you want to sign up for.

What do we need from you?

We need ambassadors with a range of skills to support our many events and activities. Some the skills and qualities we value include: 

• Reliability 
• Teamwork 
• Communication
• Sharing your experience
• Approachable 
• Digital skills 
• Creativity 
• Presenting 

It’s also a chance to use or develop other specialist skills - for example, video editing. The great thing about the Student Ambassador role is that it is VERY varied - meaning you can choose what opportunities suit your skill-set and interests, or select areas where you want to develop to help you in your future career path. 

Supporting the Contextual Offers and York Access schemes 

Like many universities, we have a contextual offers scheme which aims to support students from a variety of backgrounds to access higher education by looking at more than exam results. Not everyone has an equal opportunity to demonstrate their ability or achieve their potential at school or college; contextual offers take this into account, and students might also receive other support through the scheme.  

In addition, we offer the York Access Scheme, as an extension of our contextual offers scheme. The criteria for this scheme takes into account additional factors, to support students from groups currently underrepresented in higher education. York is one of the first universities to offer a scheme such as this, which includes eligibility criteria such as:

• receiving Free School Meals, Pupil Premium or discretionary payments related to financial hardship 
• being from a background underrepresented in higher education, including Black, Asian, mixed or multiple ethnicity and gypsy or traveller background 
• having a disability or long-term health condition and in receipt of the Personal Independence Payment (PIP) 
• attended a school that performed below the national average

As well as the contextual offer, qualifying students will have access to an enhanced support package before they arrive at York. 

How can I get involved? 

Our offer holders love to hear the experiences of current students, to help them understand what student life is like. With that in mind, this support package has been designed with our current students at the centre, bringing this project to life. ALL of the content - including blogs, vlogs and social media posts - is created by our Student Ambassadors.

We aim to showcase previous contextual offer holders, who are now at York, so some of our opportunities might have set criteria for our Student Ambassadors, but there are plenty of opportunities for other Student Ambassadors to support our project too! 

As our offer holders want to hear about the ‘real’ truth, you don’t need to be an expert in all things York, you just need to be confident to share your own story in a fun and authentic way! It’s really helpful to showcase a range of voices from our ambassadors so that our offer holders can relate to you, your background and your experience. So, give it a go, and hopefully your work will support other people who are wearing the shoes you once stood in… 

Marketing

Become a student blogger or vlogger

Do you enjoy writing, making videos and using social media? Would you like to gain work experience that's flexible and manageable alongside your studies?

We're looking for student bloggers to produce content about student life at York.

You'll be working with the Marketing team, helping us to create all kinds of content for different purposes - this could include writing blogs, making vlogs, photography, social media takeovers, and providing quotes for printed materials.

What we're looking for

We want students who are:

• interested in helping prospective students by sharing their experience of living and studying in York
• creative and good at generating ideas
• skilled in producing written or video content
• able to work both independently
• reliable and able to manage their time effectively to meet deadlines
• happy to test out new ideas and try new ways of doing things

What's involved?

We'll email you during the year with opportunities to produce content about different aspects of student life. For example, we might be looking for two blogs about Freshers' Week or five blogs about societies. You can then express your interest in different topics and can organise the work around your studies. Check out our Student Voices blog and YouTube channel to get an idea of the kind of content you might produce.