To be able to develop relationships and offer specialist support to schools and colleges, many school liaison teams divide workload regionally, with team members each having a region that they oversee and support within. This allows advisers to get to know schools and colleges and be the go-to contact for any queries or support. While this is common, there is now an ever-growing number of universities moving towards having regional-based advisers – where advisers are also living in the area that they are responsible for supporting.

In this blog, I’ll explore what this means for your school and college, and how it can benefit your students:

Having regional based advisers working in your area gives you quicker access to a wider range of universities. Where once long travel times might have made it difficult for a university to attend an event, regional based officers are better situated - meaning there’s a higher likelihood they’ll have someone available to support with your school or college event. Having access to a wide variety of institutions allows students to make more informed choices about their future destinations.

Living and working daily with schools and colleges across a region, means advisers develop a deep understanding of the students and communities within them. This allows advisers to identify common needs and challenges and tailor advice and guidance to suit. This could be through using examples of current university students, who were once in their shoes, and showing how they are now benefiting and excelling in higher education.

Being more local to your school or college means advisers are more likely to be able to support smaller groups of students who may want to speak to a specific university. For example, you might have a handful of students who wish to enquire further before booking onto an Open Day or perhaps have students that are unable to travel to one. Informal drop-in sessions are a great way of introducing a university and supporting all students with their choices.

The increase in regional based roles mean universities are becoming even more accessible, giving students opportunities to speak to specialist advisers from a wide range of universities, so they can make more informed choices about their futures. When contacting higher education providers, it may be worth asking if they have a regional adviser near you, and if so, getting in touch to see how they can support your school or college.

As an example, you may wish to meet the team of UEA’s Higher Education Advisers and Outreach Officers HERE.