A day in the life of a Student Recruitment and WP Officer
May 2022: A day in the life of Alsan, a Student Recruitment and Widening Participation Officer at Queen Mary University of London
Hi, my name is Alsan and I currently work as a Student Recruitment and Widening Participation Officer at Queen Mary University of London. After completing my A-Levels in Business, Sociology, and Government and Politics, I studied Politics and International Relations, a course which I found to be very interesting, especially during my time of study. During my time as a student at Queen Mary, my passion for the university grew and in the months after finishing my studies I joined the Student Recruitment and Widening Participation team.
Monday
Monday is usually my work-from-home day. My day typically starts at around 9 am. The first thing I do is log onto my laptop and check my unread emails before making a to-do list for the things I need to do in the week ahead. I gather a quick update from colleagues concerning projects I am involved in. At around midday, I head out for a quick gym session, which is my favourite time to go because the gym is typically quite quiet. Upon returning to my desk, I begin actioning my to-do list, one task being finalising the logistics for a campus visit happening this week, this includes contacting ambassadors to support the activity as well as liaising with various teams from security to IT. Before signing off for the day I review some outgoing student ambassador blogs then review my to-do list crossing off tasks I have completed.
Tuesday
Tuesday is one of the days I head into our very cool, contemporary offices located in Whitechapel, a train ride away from my house. My morning starts with a quick walk around the office, catching up with my colleagues to hear all about their weekends before heading to the kitchen to grab a coffee on my way to our team huddle. Our team huddle is an opportunity to share progress on some of the exciting access projects and activities in the coming week as well as share and champion individual and collective successes. During our team huddle, we also have the opportunity to hear about some of the wider ongoing university projects. After catching up on a few tasks on my to-do list, my colleagues and I head out to our local Nando’s for our team lunch. We usually have a team lunch monthly and it is a great opportunity for us to socialise and catch up on life updates. When I return to my desk, I finalise some arrangements with a school I am visiting later in the week. The rest of my day compiles of meetings with various members of my team, once finished I head home and arrive just in time for a lovely dinner with my family.
Wednesday
My Wednesday starts with a walk down Mile End road to our historical, beautiful campus. I arrive on campus at around 8:30 am and prepare to welcome 80 energetic Year 8 students from one of our local schools. I have a quick brief with my colleagues and student ambassadors and confirm the outline for the day before the first session – a talk on choosing GCSE choices. After the first session, I host a Q&A with current students from various courses, this is probably one of the things I enjoy most about my role. The Q&A allows the students to gain a useful insight into student life at Queen Mary! I then send students on a Campus challenge, which is one of their favourite parts of the day, and probably mine too! After an engaging, interactive day of sessions, I say goodbye to the school at around 2 pm at which time I grab a sandwich and have lunch by the canal, which is certainly one of my favourite lunch spots. After lunch and ensuring I’ve responded to all emails requiring today’s attention I spend some time on LinkedIn Learning, a great resource that I use to take short online courses and learn new skills. I then head home and wind down, binge-watching a couple of episodes of the best series ever created – Suits!
Thursday
On Thursday I leave my house at around 8 am to arrive at one of our outreach school’s morning assembly’s on time. I then deliver an interactive assembly on study skills to a cohort of year 10’s who are about to begin a period of mock exams. At the end of the session, the students had quite a few questions so I stay behind to answer as many as I could, I enjoy meeting potential students of Queen Mary and giving them the information needed to make informed decisions. After the assembly, I head back home to continue my day and prepare a webinar I am hosting this evening for the parents and carers of prospective students! Ahead of the webinar, I review the webinar’s content as well as the expected number of attendees for the evening. I then log onto the webinar and begin the session at 4:30 pm. The webinar goes well, with parents and carers asking many questions and having left, feeling more confident concerning the topic of student finance. This is one of my favourite parts of the job, interacting with parents and carers and helping decipher the world of higher education. After the webinar, I respond to a few general emails from schools and teachers before logging off for the day and heading to central London with my friends to watch a football match.
Friday
Upon arriving in the office at 9 am I take the usual route of greeting and catching up with colleagues whilst walking to my desk. After getting settled in, I start to respond to some emails received from various schools and colleges throughout the UK and then continue to work on my to-do list which this week requires me to create some fun and interactive icebreakers for upcoming campus visits. After lunch, I prepare to deliver a campus tour to prospective students from various age groups. The tour lasts around an hour, and I walk prospective students and their parents or carers through our campus whilst informing them about student life as well as the support available to them. Having been a student at Queen Mary this is one of the elements I enjoy as it casts my mind back to my university years. After visiting different buildings, libraries, and support services, we visit student accommodation before heading back to the historic Queen’s Building where I thank attendees and say goodbye. I then tidy away the equipment I have used and review my to-do list for the final time this week.
The weekend is here! I have a few plans, most notably the continuation of my Marvel Movie Marathon!
Student recruitment and widening participation is such a rewarding area of work. From engaging with prospective students to conversing with parents there is never a dull moment! I especially enjoy seeing students who come from low participation backgrounds and have aspirations raised to the possibility of progressing to higher education.
I hope this has provided you with helpful insight into what my typical day looks like as Student Recruitment and Widening Participation Officer.
Your questions answered!
Question 1 – What do you find the most challenging in your work?
Within my current field of work the most challenging aspect is knowing that although there has been tremendous work in widening participation, evident in our institution being ranked the best Russell Group university for social mobility, there is still work to be done across the sector. As such knowing that there are still young people who are underrepresented in higher education is probably the biggest challenge I face.
Question 2 – What are your long-term career goals?
Although I do not have a concrete 10 year career plan, I do hope to continue to continue working within the sphere of diversity and inclusion, possibly becoming a diversity consultant in the not too distant future.
Question 3 – What other jobs can you do at a uni that doesn’t involve teaching?
There are many jobs aside from teaching at university. Like a non-educational organisation, universities have many different departments ranging from catering and estates all the way to IT. Throughout universities there are many jobs for individuals with a variety of skills, ranging from Content and Editorial Officers to Fees officers. Rest assured, there is many things to do besides teaching.