Wonkhe is a community of diverse voices, providing platforms to drive the higher education policy conversation forward – because we love the sector and want to make it better for everyone.
Our work with subscriber students’ unions is about making sure that student representatives and the staff that support them are enabled to take part in that conversation as proper partners – and if you’re excited by that goal, our Community and Policy Officer role might be just the thing you’re looking for.
About Wonkhe
Founded in 2011, Wonkhe is the home of the higher education debate, leading the national conversation about higher education policy and universities in the UK.
We supply critical intelligence and information services to the higher education sector through our daily email briefings, publish articles from a diverse range of voices on Wonkhe.com, and build connections across our community of higher education professionals through our public and private events. We also have a thriving community of students’ union subscribers and we work with a wide range of partner organisations that share our goals and support our work.
Wonkhe SUs is a subscription service for students’ unions designed to keep SU officers and the staff that support them in the loop. When SUs know what’s going on, and can understand what’s going on, they can influence what’s going on in the student interest. Our subscription service for SUs is aimed at saving time and improving the effectiveness of student representation, campaigning and policy work.
We are a small, driven team, working at a fast pace, that values autonomy, creativity and quality. Our subscribers trust the analysis and information we provide, and use it to inform their thinking and professional lives in higher education. We all have a big commitment to the success of higher education, and we expect everyone in the team to share that goal.
The role
Our SUs Community and Policy Officer is a crucial role in the team. You’ll help deliver several strands of Wonkhe’s work for students’ union subscribers – taking a lead on projects designed to address manifesto priorities of SU officers across the sector, delivering a new student research strategy and helping to serve our SU subscribers with support calls, briefings and training.
There is significant scope for personal development within the role, depending on the interests and aspirations of the postholder.
The postholder will need to be prepared to start work early (6-6.30am) one day a week to support the production of our Daily and SUs briefings, which go out at 8.00am every day. Other than this, work patterns are highly flexible and we provide full support and technology for working remotely.
The role is fully remote, with monthly visits to London and regular travel within the UK (and sometimes further afield).
Person specification
We are looking for someone who is highly organised and passionate about building the capacity of student leaders to be credible, confident, knowledgeable and influential. You will be comfortable working without close supervision, and keen to build your career and networks in higher education, students’ unions and/or research, policy and training & development.
If you are ready to learn and thrive in a fast-paced environment where standards are high, we want to hear from you.
You will need (this is the “person specification” for the role):
- A keen interest in higher education policy, politics, universities and students’ unions.
- Some experience in delivering training, facilitation or support to students, student groups or student leaders.
- Knowledge of and interest in digital and social media.
- To be a first-rate communicator that can write clearly and engagingly.
- Experience in policy development and the development of proposals for change in higher education.
- The ability to organise and manage a diverse workload, prioritise tasks, and reliably produce to tight deadlines.
- To be a self-starter, comfortable with working remotely and flexibly to support the wider team.
- To be able to network, collaborate and build relationships inside and outside organisations.
- An understanding of and commitment to values-based commercial activity (we’re a business) that serves SUs as charities.
Job description
Developing and delivering SU policy projects You will research the priorities of SU officers and deliver collaborative projects that draw together ideas, expertise and analysis that helps those SUs deliver for students, and develop briefing output that puts officers and the staff that support them in the know.
Training and development You will visit students’ unions and develop online material to deliver our in-house training and webinar offers, building the skills, knowledge and confidence in policy and politics that enables SU officers and the staff that support them to become more impactful.
Building the community You’ll recruit new subscribers to meet our commercial goals, and help to deliver our SU support offer – briefing our unions on the issues of the day, speaking to student officers and the staff that support them to field queries, signpost to the work of other SUs and bodies in the sector and building understanding and confidence in the process.
Chameleonic communication Being able to listen to, interpret and communicate with our subscribers, partners and policy makers is an essential component of our work at Wonkhe, and a huge part of what will make this role successful. Post holders might be required to contribute to panels, present online briefings, brief boards and interview decision makers all on the same day.
Other activities as required Wonkhe is a small team and so there’s always an opportunity to get involved and pitch in with our editorial output and events.
Note: if you’re a current student officer, we don’t want to yank you out of your SU role early – but we’d be keen to discuss a tapered, flexible start. Let’s have a conversation.
To apply, just email lindsay@wonkhe.com with a CV and a 2 sides max covering letter that sets out out how you meet the person specification for the role (use each of the nine aspects above as headings) no later than 9.00am on Friday 5 April.
Interviews will be held on Friday 12 April in London. If you have any questions about the role please contact jim@wonkhe.com.