My Experience Working As A Student Ambassador at Kingston University

With the ongoing cost of living crisis and maintenance loans (unfortunately!) staying put, over the past few years there's been a significant increase in the amount of UK students trying to fit work around their studies. Whilst Kingston-upon-Thames does have a lot of part-time retail and front of house positions available in the local area, it can sometimes be hard to work these around your university schedule, especially if you're on a course where lectures or workshops might be arranged short notice. Furthermore, retail work might not be everyone, and some students might like a bit more control over what type of work they're doing - in which case, Kingston University’s Student Ambassador programme might be the thing for you!

Student Ambassadors are students from all faculties and levels of study (so both undergraduates and postgrads) who help represent Kingston University at a wide variety of on- and off-campus events, including our Lab In A Lorry and subject insight visits, campus open days, graduation ceremonies, higher education fairs and even online interview assistance. If you're already a KU student, you've probably seen them about campus in their signature yellow t-shirts - and if you're hoping to come to Kingston this autumn, they'll definitely be there to assist you with settling into campus life the first few weeks.

One of the best perks of working as a Student Ambassador is that I'm able to choose when I want to work and what sort of work I want to do - if I'm available to work a KU graduation ceremony, I can apply to that, and if an Open Day or two didn't suit me, there's no obligation to work it if I can't. This works perfectly for my course, and allows me to take weekends off if I want to instead of being tied down to certain dates or shifts. Personally, my favourite events to work are graduations - although they can be quite busy, you do feel quite proud to able to help students and their families on what could be the biggest day in their academic career.

I know when I was applying to university, one of my main considerations was whether or not I'd be easily able to find work in the area if I needed a bit of extra money. Finding out that Kingston University employs over 400 Student Ambassadors (as well as many more students in other on-campus roles!) definitely played a factor in my ultimate choice to come here, and I'm glad it did! I feel a lot more financially secure than I ever expected to as a student, and I know I'm getting good experience to put on my CV for when I start looking for graduate roles.

If you're interested in becoming a Student Ambassador, make sure to keep an eye on any emails coming into your university email inbox advertising the opportunity. The big recruitment period usually tends to occur in the first two months or so of each academic year (Oct-Nov), but this can vary. If you want to find out any more information about the work Student Ambassadors do or get in contact with the Student Ambassador team, check out the Student Ambassador page on the Kingston University website: https://www.kingston.ac.uk/undergraduate/access/student-ambassadors/

As always, if you have any questions, feel free to drop them down below as well! :smile: