Get involved

Enrolling as a student with the University of Birmingham is the beginning of a valuable lifelong relationship.

Your connection with the University might have started as a student but there is a whole range of ways to stay involved with Birmingham after graduation; from simply giving us your feedback to helping current students define which speciality they would like to pursue once they graduate.

Inspire our students

Help inspire our students by submitted a career profile.

Whether you're just starting out, changing role or at the top of your field you are doing amazing things. Tell us about your career and offer an insight into the opportunities available to our students.

Encourage young people to consider science and engineering

Our Class Ambassador programme is seeking alumni who graduated in the last 5 years to encourage 14-18 years olds to consider a career in science, technology, engineering or maths (STEM).

Alumni play a key role at our University Open Days and are often considered the "face" of their graduating class. You are the people who have been there, done that, and got the t-shirt (or cap and gown!). You can offer an exciting insight into life as a student, how your extra-curricular activities or work experience supplemented your studies, and what you've done to start your career. You could help prospective students choose Birmingham.

To apply, please email eps-community@contacts.bham.ac.uk.

Mentor a student

Could you mentor a current student?

Our scheme aims to match every student who wants to participate to an Alumni Mentor with relevant experience in the student’s area of interest. The aim of the programme is to help students prepare to find a job when they leave University, and activities could include reviewing CVs and applications, giving information and advice about their chosen career, helping them to identify potential careers, encouraging them to source work experience and internships and being a general source of support and guidance.

The scheme runs each year from November until the following summer, and you should be prepared to give about an hour per month of your time. Ideally, you will be able to meet your student mentee at least once face-to-face, but we appreciate this may not always be possible. We've had successful  partnerships with international mentors too and relationships can also take place by phone, e-mail and Skype. 

We welcome interest from all alumni – you do not have to have mentored before or reached the ‘top’ of your career to be able to be a mentor and we are also keen to hear from young alumni. You will only be matched to a student where relevant and we provide guidance and support on the mentoring process, and support is available to you.

Mentoring makes a real different to students.  We all know the benefit of having someone to bounce ideas off, and gaining advice from those who've gone before us. Could you be that person?

If you are interested in mentoring a student, please email eps-community@contacts.bham.ac.uk

Offer your professional expertise

All of our 39 student groups and academic departments organise Careers Activities for their undergraduate and postgraduate students.  

These could be speednetworking events with alumni representing different companies aligned to a certain discipline or sector, exhibitions with multiple companies attending, or guest lectures with the opportunity to go into greater detail on your career. If you'd like to encourage students to consider a career in your field, please get in touch on eps-community@contacts.bham.ac.uk.

Work experience, internships and placements

Work experience
This is a short-term experience of employment (no more than 20 days), and is unpaid, during which the student(s) will assist with tasks and ‘get a feel’ for a specific professional field. Students can help on a specific project that you need support with.

Internships
Do you want to hire an intern? Internships are paid opportunities (at National Minimum Wage or above) for students to work on real-life projects, adding value to your business. They typically last between 4-12 weeks over the summer, although some students may seek part-time internships during term-time. We can advertise internships for free through our vacancy portal.

Placements
Placements are embedded within an academic course, and allow students to work on a specific project related to their degree. This typically takes place one day per week over the course of one or two academic terms. We are currently looking for placements for a range of degree programmes, from medicine to creative writing.

If you think you can help, please contact eps-community@contacts.bham.ac.uk.

Share your network

  • Join our Linked In Community
  • Introduce us to your organisation
  • Become a Birmingham champion - share our success stories with your colleagues

To find out more or suggest an alternative way to get involved please email eps-community@contacts.bham.ac.uk