Do you work in school liaison, student recruitment, or widening participation?

The UniTasterDays Practitioners' Guide 2025 is a new online resource filled with valuable advice, guidance, and practical exercises designed to support university practitioners in their work with schools and colleges.

It also offers a platform for you to share your own wisdom with fellow school liaison practitioners working in the sector. Unlike our Parent, Student, and Teacher Guides, this brochure is intended to support practitioners just like you!

Do you have an engaging classroom activity to share? Maybe a strategy to manage a disruptive school group? Or perhaps an innovative addition to a taster day?

If so, we’d love you to write for us!

You will discover lots of benefits to writing for the Practitioners’ Guide. If you choose to submit an article, you will:

• Gain an opportunity to showcase your success
• Help your peers in their own school liaison activity
• Contribute to stronger support for prospective students across the UK
• Receive visibility and credibility across the sector – great for your employability
• Develop your writing, editing, and proof-reading skills.

To write an article, you need to work in a school liaison role - such as student recruitment or widening participation - at one of our member universities.

We occasionally accept articles from other sources, such as partner organisations and the guest speakers who attend our university training days.

Rest assured, you don’t need any prior writing experience to submit an article. Our editorial team is happy to support you.

Equally, you don't need to be in a senior role. Advice and insights from entry-level practitioners are just as valuable as those written by directors.

We invite you to submit your own ideas for articles before Friday 27 September 2024.

Any words of wisdom that might build skills, expertise, and confidence in your fellow practitioners are welcome!

You can submit your own ideas for articles. However, if you would appreciate some inspiration, you can find a few suggestions below. We will remove any that have been snapped up from this list!

• Account management tips when working with schools
• Answering difficult questions at a university fair or exhibition
• Arranging a 30% discount on coach travel for open days
• Building empathy with a disruptive student in your classroom session
• Delivering school sessions with confidence
• Establishing a sensory space at on-campus events
• Leading an inspiring, interactive finance session
• Making the most of university fair attendance
• Managing upwards and your career progression
• Tips when building links with schools and colleges
• Working effectively with parents and guardians
• Writing risk assessments for university events

However, this is not a prescriptive list, and we would love to receive your own ideas.

Either way, please contact Simon at [email protected] to check nobody else is planning to write about the same topic. Great minds think alike, after all!

Simon will reply to confirm whether your article has been chosen.

Ready to start writing your article?

Please follow our editorial guidelines. Your article should be:

1. Under 550 words in length, independent, and impartial in tone.
2. Written for your fellow university practitioners who work in school liaison activity, such as those in student recruitment, widening participation, and outreach.
3. Your own unique content in your own style. You are welcome to submit articles that you have written for other places, provided you make us aware of their original appearance, and you give them a little creative revision to freshen them up!
4. Articles should be acronym and jargon free, or at least explained within the article when they appear for the first time. You may be writing for fellow university professionals, but please be mindful of skills and knowledge gaps.
5. Concise and well structured. Readability is critical when preparing any written communication. Please use simple language, short sentences, short paragraphs, sub-headings, and bullet-points. We even offer a university training day on this topic!

Please submit your article to Simon at [email protected]. Your email should include:

• Your article attached in a Word document
• Your name
• Your job title
• Your institution
• Your professional photo – this will appear in a small author profile.

You will receive an acknowledgment for your content. If you don’t receive a response within 7 days, please do contact us to check we have received it.

Once submitted, your article will be reviewed and revised by our editorial team. We rarely make significant changes, especially regarding the content of your article.

Typically, our team uses copywriting best practice to enhance the readability of your article, such as occasional language and structural edits. This makes the article more audience-friendly, accessible, and suitable for being read online.

Either way, you will receive the edited article to check you are happy with our amends. We will ask you to review and approve the final version. Once you are happy, we will publish your article on the live version of the guide.

The Practitioners' Guide 2025 is already published, with more articles on the way.

We would love you to explore the articles written by your fellow practitioners to gain valuable advice and guidance to help you perform in your role. And why stop there?

You can gain further professional development opportunities by attending (or requesting) our inspiring, insightful, and interactive training days.

There are two options. You can:

• Attend our next university training day – our popular sector-wide events, hosted throughout the year in Birmingham
• Book an in-house training day – a bespoke training day offered to your full department, hosted on your very own campus.

And remember... We also have a wider series of free online guides packed with advice written by school liaison practitioners. These are created each year to support teachers, parents, and prospective students with the university application cycle:

• Teachers’ Guide to University

• Parents’ Guide to University

• Students’ Guide to University

Please do share these with your audiences and contacts to support your school liaison activity. We can supply text, imagery, and everything else you need to do so!

As ever, if you have any questions about our Practitioners’ Guide, our training opportunities, or anything else, please do let us know. We’d be happy to help. Contact us using [email protected].