Recruiting Ambassadors
A strong Ambassador programme can transform how prospective students connect with your institution. The right mix of Ambassadors will ensure authentic, relatable conversations that inspire confidence in your university.
This guide combines best practices, selection tips, and proven advice to help you recruit and select Ambassadors for a successful programme.
You can read more about launching your Ambassador programme, and find key resources and recruitment templates here.
How do I select Ambassadors?
When choosing your Ambassadors, we recommend selecting a broad range of passionate and proactive students from across your institution. The more diverse your Ambassador team is, the more likely a prospect will find someone they relate to.
Attributes to consider include:
Nationality: Inspire confidence and ensure that incoming international students hear authentic stories from someone who has been in their shoes.
Languages Spoken: Enable your incoming international students to chat to someone in their own language.
Course/Program: Represent high-interest courses which will attract more prospect questions, but also spotlight courses you'd like to generate more interest in. Being able to speak to a current student can make less-populated courses more appealing to applicants.
Hobbies: Showcase a wide mix of hobbies from sport to the arts, crafting to gaming; so prospects can find an Ambassador who aligns with their interests.
All of these attributes can influence a prospect and encourage them to start a conversation. Ultimately, prospects are looking for someone they have something in common with, so the broader the range, the better.
How many Ambassadors should I select?
The overall Ambassador total will depend on the following:
Are you a small and niche, midsize, or large institution?
How many different courses do you have?
Which key audiences you are looking to engage with?
Do you cover all levels of study - i.e. Undergraduate and Postgraduate?
Remember, quality is just as important as quantity. Ambassadors who are proactive and confident will excel on Unibuddy, and make a real impact to the prospect journey.
How many Ambassadors should I start with?
If you do not have a large, diverse group of Ambassadors when you launch your Unibuddy Chat platform, that’s not a problem.
You can always start with a smaller number of 5-8 well-trained Student Ambassadors, and scale from there. However, be prepared to increase your Ambassador count as Chat platform traffic increases.
How to promote becoming an Ambassador?
Every university or institution is unique, and you will likely already have some great ideas. Here are some examples which have worked for other partner universities:
Established student relationships
Use enrolled students that you already work with on a regular basis - perhaps as campus guides or university brand ambassadors. Host an in-person information session for them to find out more, and for you to gauge their interest.
If you don’t have an existing established Student Ambassador programme, this is no problem at all. Please see further options below:
Societies and communities
Promote your forthcoming Ambassador programme to international student societies, the student volunteer centre, Student's Union, colleges, and the club/society network within your institution.
Advertising
Posters, flyers, spotlights on campus radio, social media campaigns, and digital banners are a great way to spread the word on campus.
Academic departments
Reach out to departments/faculties for target courses. Academic and department staff may have engaged students in mind that they feel would be a good fit.
Events
Piggyback existing events such as Welcome Week or orientation fairs, or host your own. Provide tasty treats, sustainable swag, or another draw - a talk on responsible AI or careers guidance - or a CV-checking service.
Use official student comms channels
Announce and post job descriptions in student newsletters, intranet, social accounts, student portals, and email comms. You can find template resources on job descriptions, and guidance on selection criteria here.