To help us to ensure we are user led in everything we do to deliver our digital strategy, we embed our users into our team. Deborah is our Student Communications and Engagement Assistant who, alongside her Medical School degree, has worked in our team for the past year helping to increase engagement with everything we’re doing to improve the student experience at Exeter, with a focus on engaging other Students through digital communications.
This blog post, written by Deborah, reflects on her past year in the team in readiness for her returning to the team later this month!
Working with the Digital Team as a Digital Communications Assistant
It has now been over a year since I joined the team as Digital Communications and Engagement Assistant. I started this job not knowing much about communication and how we could use different platforms and channels and message to reach a targeted audiences effectively. The team helped develop those skills by allowing me to create exciting content that would later be used on a range of platforms, such as the student ran Instagram account @exeterunilife, the Digital Buzz blog and even Times Higher Education’s social media accounts when promoting Digital Universities UK 2024! It has been a pleasure to see how this content reached a variety of audiences, showing them what the team are working on to best support the University of Exeter’s Students and improve our experience at Exeter.
What have I learned?
My past year with the Digital team has taught me a lot, starting with everything I have worked with them on which has allowed me to use my creativity for communication purposes. It taught me to work with a deadline, and that surprisingly restrictions and brand guidelines are more often than not the best fuel for creativity and getting you to think outside of the box!
Earlier this year the University of Exeter hosted Times Higher Education’s Digital Universities UK 2024 on our Streatham campus, and the Digital team were closely involved with planning the event. Scarlett (Digital Communications Advisor) and Helen (Head of Digital Strategy and Engagement) also presented at Digital Universities US 2024, and I was involved with creating content to promote these events. My work for both the DUUK and DUUS events were some of my favourite to be involved in. It has been rewarding to see that the videos I made had received positive feedback and contributed to promote the team’s work across the globe.
Finally, I got the chance to meet wonderful people on this team who have been an incredible support and welcomed me with warmth and generosity. Scarlett and the team always included me in their brainstorming sessions and often asked me for some feedback on the things they had been working on, making sure it would satisfy their users. My voice is always valued and listened to in all the different projects we’ve worked on.
Final thoughts
This role has enabled me to grow a lot over the past year and I have gained many skills that I would not have been able to develop as much if I had not joined the Digital team. I will always thank them for this opportunity, which helped me on so many levels, both personal and professional. I have grown to become more confident in my work and learned to step outside of my comfort zone. I have already been involved in so many different projects, and there are still more awaiting so I’m excited for the next year to come.
– Written by Deborah Phan Huy, Student Communications and Engagement Assistant
Read past blog posts written by Deborah about her time in the team.
Take a look at the products and services we are developing on our website.