About this brief
This report profiles strategies deployed by UK, US, and Canadian higher education institutions to leverage alumni to improve student skills and gradate outcomes. The introduction below frames the case studies using data from an EAB survey of UK alumni relations and career services leaders. The strategies that follow span four broad topic areas for better leveraging alumni-student relationships in the interests of employability.
Introduction: Great expectations - and opportunities - for student employabilityPerhaps like never before, higher education institutions are under pressure to deliver on a promise of graduate employability. In the UK, new requirements from the Office for Students’ regulatory framework, coupled with growing public concern about the return on investment associated with higher education, have reignited expectations about students’ post-graduate outcomes. As seen in the data on the right, underemployment of university graduates in the UK continues to pose difficult questions about value for money.
Thankfully, institutions have many (albeit under-utilised) resources at their disposal to move the dial on student employability. One such solution is to leverage alumni to enhance student career development in a mutually beneficial relationship. The reasoning is simple: Students require access to employers, insight into various industries, and guidance on how to search for jobs and network. Alumni seek volunteer opportunities for their own professional development, a chance to strengthen their personal networks with academic staff, and venues to give back to students.
The university sits at the centre of this relationship and is well-primed to serve as the intermediary between…