Some people argue that there is nothing special about student volunteers. Perhaps the activities they take part in do not necessarily differ from other ‘volunteer-types’. However, (and sorry to bore you with statistics) in a recent study Georgina Brewis et.al found that 63% of surveyed students reported to have formally volunteered since they had started university.

This percentage is significantly higher than the national standard with 40% of adults volunteering formally at least once a year and 54% volunteering informally (Citizenship Survey 2010). These student volunteers do not just volunteer within their universities - 76% have taken part in volunteering that benefits people in communities outside of their university.

This includes volunteering with young people, organising campaigns and appeals, coaching local sports groups, museum interpreting and so on.

Making sure we support student volunteering

This level of volunteering by students and the positive impact that they have on communities should be celebrated. However, there is no longer one single organisation focussed solely on student volunteering, leaving no one there to advocate on their behalf.

This gap is a dual result of funding constraints (after government reduced its financial support of the voluntary sector) and the radical transformations to Higher Education. I believe that there is now the opportunity for a student volunteer network to fill in the gap of support for student volunteers.

On 10th-12th February, students and workers from the student volunteering sector came together at Oxford Brookes University for the national student volunteering conference, IMPACT 2012. I was there in my capacity as chair of the Impact Committee, a group of student leaders and volunteers from universities in England, Scotland and Wales.

With support from Student Hubs, the main role of the committee was to set the agenda for the conference (to ensure that the conference was student led and therefore relevant to current student volunteers) and also to develop a proposal for a student volunteer network, the Impact Network, which we presented at the conference.

About the Impact Network

The Impact Network will work to highlight and showcase the positive impacts of student volunteering for both the communities and the volunteer. It will be supported by the Impact Committee which will mobilise and motivate the Network in order to lobby those universities that do not adequately support their student volunteers, share best practice, respond to policy and so on.

We are currently advertising for applications for the Impact Committee 2012/13. The deadline is the end of Student Volunteer Week, Sunday 26th February. If you’d like to apply please e-mail a.s.finnegan@soton.ac.uk for more information or find out more on the Impact website.

Anjelica is a PhD student at the University of Southampton studying the relationship between government and volunteers and is currently the chair of the Impact Committee.