Volunteering has been the backbone of students’ union provision for a long time, but it’s threatened by the student engagement crisis.
Decreasing union budgets, narrowing time for students to participate in extracurriculars, and a more transactional lens to the student experience all contribute to why volunteering feels harder to sell, both to students and senior leaders.
But volunteering hasn’t gone away altogether. Students still give up their time volunteering to be society and club leaders, to participate in academic and democratic representation roles, and to fundraise and campaign.
SUs would be significantly less vibrant and less impactful without these roles.
Even in a crisis, volunteering still has its place in SUs and on campuses. Reflecting on my experience leading and delivering student volunteering programmes, the value which volunteering brings to students’ skills and employability, ability to make change and the student experience can be the key to justifying the value of these activities.
Back to life, back to employability
Universities and employers are concerned about skills. For universities in England they’re concerned about their B3 metrics, for employers they’re worried about new graduates in their workforce – 48 per cent of employers highlighted concerns about resilience.
It’s vital that graduates have the skills to set themselves apart in a challenging job market, and volunteering supports students to develop those attributes in a way which the academic curriculum doesn’t naturally facilitate.
As Jim has covered on the site before, these roles involve student leaders managing staff, overseeing budgets, handling crises, developing initiative and a sustained commitment to a public position, all without the motivation of payment.
In my experience recruiting graduates and early career starters to the voluntary, community and social enterprise sector, it is often the experiences which graduates have pursued outside of their academic experience, which can set them apart.
The conversation needs to be broader with students about what counts in the world of employability, and what volunteering, a society role, a rep role, caring responsibilities or a part-time job can look like as part of selling their skills.
SUs have the capacity to start these conversations with students in an informal way through training, interactions in commercial spaces, and through the development of opportunities they provide.
At student social action charity Student Hubs, I often described volunteering as a gateway to reaching students who may never have accessed careers teams or central university services, even when they stood the most to benefit from this provision.
Students are often listing employability as one of their top priorities from their university and SU and SUs have a place in the skills and employability conversation, with huge potential to capture engagement.
Let’s get civic-al
It’s understandable that students are disengaged with democracy when the picture looks bleak. The culmination of Brexit, party leadership scandals, the student loans debate and the rise of minority parties make it clear that students don’t feel seen, listened or heard by people currently in power.
At Membership Services Conference in 2025, I asked the audience to imagine that they were part of a generation who never saw anything get better in their lifetime, and how they would feel and act as a result.
Amidst the growing apathy and disengagement from democracy and civic life, SUs can reset expectations.
One of the most transformative things about participating in voluntary programmes is how quickly students can see evidence of the tangible positive impact which they have created.
At a time when the prevailing narrative seems to be that working hard doesn’t lead to a better life, community engagement is more important than ever. That’s where you can see it’s possible to make change.
This is the time for SUs to dig deep in their education campaigns on democracy, the role of representatives, voting in local elections, and the power which students have to shape their local area through social and environmental issues.
Restoring hope to a cohort who feel thoroughly hard done by (and rightly so) is a huge job. But SUs can be at the start of that journey in showing students that change can happen through action, and inspiring students to imagine what else they can do on a local, national and global stage.
I’ve heard countless student stories about the impact volunteering programmes have had on their confidence, wellbeing and employability, and the ways they applied these learnings to organising their studies, applying for jobs or shaping their careers through new paths into internships and graduate placements.
But students won’t believe they can achieve and make change until they see it for themselves. Volunteering is a fantastic tool for sparking hope which leads to these renewed ambitions for future life. It builds civic and employable citizens.
Open the gate
With university budgets tightening and block grants getting squeezed, it’s more crucial than ever that SUs articulate the impact they are having on student experience and outcomes.
Volunteering has the capacity to supercharge student experience if the right data can be collected. SUs could be doing more to evidence the impact of voluntary activities such as evaluating key outcomes, developing their training and accreditation schemes, and telling student stories through case studies, testimonials and community impact.
SUs can go even further with data sharing agreements with their university to better monitor how engagements correlate with improved retention, progression and attainment rates, or demonstrate how union engagements are reaching students who most need support.
Quantitative and qualitative evidence is going to make all the difference in being able to evidence the value they add to their university, and how they are supporting students to thrive on and off campus.
It’s alive!
Volunteering has so much to give to SUs, their members and the wider community.
But we need to make more of the opportunity in a time where every penny counts.
Volunteering is not just important because of the transformative impact it has had on me and my career, but also because it is something that students genuinely want to do and experience if positioned in the right way.
