What is a Student Ambassador?

Being a Student Ambassador is a great way to get involved with the University, have fun and gain valuable skills.

We are not currently recruiting but you can learn more about the role here and sign up to be informed when we are recruiting and you are eligible to apply.

What are Student Ambassadors?

Student Ambassadors are an essential part of the University’s recruitment and pre-arrival activity. The ideal candidate is someone who is enthusiastic about sharing authentic student experiences with prospective students and their supporters. Ambassadors will have opportunities to represent the University, their School and their academic programme to internal and external audiences.

Overall, my experience as a Student Ambassador at the University of Edinburgh has been one of the highlights from my time at the university. I was able to improve my communication, organisational and time management skills and was able to choose my shifts based on my own availability, which was very helpful during my postgraduate degree.

Gergana Student Ambassador 

The work is varied and dependent on ability, interest and availability. It includes but is not limited to participating in activities that allow you to share your student experience with prospective students and their supporters. For example:

  • Student panels
  • Peer-to-peer text chat​
  • Blogging/vlogging
  • Assisting with recruitment, offer holder and welcome events
  • Participating in photo shoots/video, focus groups and other marketing activity
  • Opportunity to be involved with wider University activities, for example graduations

Essential

  • Excellent communication skills, verbally and in writing
  • Awareness of equality and diversity
  • Passionate about the university experience in general and the University of Edinburgh in particular
  • Represent the University with integrity, professionalism and enthusiasm
  • Friendly, approachable and happy to initiate contact with prospective students and/or their supporters
  • Reliable with excellent time-management and organisational skills
  • Willingness to follow instruction
  • Excellent team working skills
  • Self-motivated to work on individual tasks
  • Basic IT skills eg. use of Microsoft Office suite
  • Access to a desktop, laptop or smart device

Desirable

  • Previous customer service experience or having held a similar ambassador type role
  • Awareness of the barriers people might face when accessing Higher Education

Hear from our Ambassadors about their experience as a Student Ambassador

Pay and contracts

  • Pay Rate: £12.60 per hour as of November 2024 (plus 18% in lieu of annual leave allowances which is approximately £2.26 per hour)
  • Flexible Hours: No set hours per week or month; work around your studies. This role does not offer a steady income but can top up other sources of income, while giving you varied experience
  • Minimum Guarantee: At least 10 hours of work per year

There are lots of bits of work throughout the year that are offered to ambassadors that we don't know of until nearer the time but here is an indication of how the year will look so you have an idea:

September: Pretty busy with Welcome Week work opportunities

October: Campus Tours and Open Days (guaranteed work) – second busiest month of the year

November: Campus Tours and Postgraduate Open Day (These tend to be online and there will be a lot of work but we can’t guarantee for all)

December: This is a very quiet month for work and there are no Campus Tours

January: This is also traditionally a quieter month but Campus Tours will be on

February: This is also traditionally quieter but more work starts coming through and there are Campus Tours

March: Work starts increasing to support offer holder events and there are Campus Tours

April: Campus Tours and Offer Holder events – this is our busiest month and we are aware it is also very busy with your studies. If you can try and effectively time manage both there is plenty of work opportunities and staff really want your help at the offer holder events

May: Starts to get quieter but there are Campus Tours

June: Undergraduate Open Day (guaranteed work) tends to happen and there are Campus Tours

July: Tends to be quieter but there are Campus Tours and less people around so higher chance of getting shifts


Sign up to be contacted about future recruitment

Our normal recruitment schedule is:

  • Autumn semester - On-campus postgraduate students
  • Spring semester – Undergraduate students and Online Learners (UK based)

We may also top up representation of other areas during any of our recruitment periods. If you would like us to alert you when you can apply to be a Student Ambassador please sign up. We will contact you when you can apply to be a Student Ambassador or when other roles that you have expressed an interest in become available.

Need Help?

If you have any questions about the position or the application that are not answered on this page please contact the Student Ambassador team:

This article was published on