GottaBe! Hosts University Roundtable

Tuesday 30th June 2020 was an exciting time for us here at GottaBe! as we hosted our first ever roundtable event for universities. Hosted at 2020’s most popular venue, Zoom, GottaBe!’s Founder and Managing Director, Tomasz Dyl welcomed a number of universities to the meeting to discuss the topic of recruiting students from BAME communities. This saw the introduction of a number of Student Recruitment Officers looking to improve their current processes as well as individuals whom are new to the role and were looking to learn anything and everything they could about to go about the recruitment of BAME students.

We were very excited to welcome representatives from universities nationwide. There were an interesting range of concerns and questions that really got us thinking. We made sure to address all concerns and questions from the attendees and found that the following points were what were most commonly came up from the event.

Key Concerns and Queries

• Smaller/Some specialist universities struggle with marketing themselves to international students due to a lower profile than the larger universities
• Universities in the North East struggle with local BAME recruitment, due to smaller communities in these areas
• Some universities are unsure how to go about being able to connect prospective BAME students with current BAME students in order for them to discuss their experiences and address any of the prospective students’ concerns
• Many universities are unsure to how to approach BAME student recruitment in a sensitive and appropriate manner
• Following on from the previous point, many universities are struggling with how to make prospective BAME students feel welcome at their institution without making them feel patronised and especially when there is currently a very limited number of BAME student representation there

The above points are not only incredibly valid, but they are also incredibly important to address. This of course is not the only points that should be addressed, but they are key in approaching the recruitment of students from BAME communities into your next cohort. If you have any questions that are not included in the aforementioned points, or would like to discuss reaching and engaging with particular communities, please do not hesitate to contact us using the below form and we will get back to you as soon as possible!