Try something different this Money Week. Get the students to do the work part a)……….
If you’ve got a tight (or £0!) budget and limited resources, a great way to get involved with NSMW is by getting students to do all the work for you plus it makes them feel empowered, which is a big tick in financial capability.
It’s not what you know it’s who you know
We’ve been wheeling our money tree out for a few years now, we were lucky enough to have a creative colleague design it for us and all we had to do was buy the wood cut it for us. We explained it was their way of supporting a very worthwhile campaign.
These days you can get tissues with money printed on them, but we just have a handful of laminated copies of old style notes and it certainly catches the eye!Alternatively, you can get an image of a bare tree, print it on A3 and use leaf shaped stickers.
For NSMW18, we’ll be asking students for their steer on an online hardship fund application (nothing to do with Housing!). We haven’t tried using focus groups so this will be our first foray – getting some written suggestions and asking them for their details if they’re interested in being part of a focus group which will just look at the online form. Fingers crossed we’ll get some takers. We’ll probably draw up a simple 5 question survey at this stage then use the findings as our platform.
Great for ticking the student feedback box
Saves time by getting information there and then
Doesn’t clog up inboxes with yet another student survey
Great for CSE, Matrix and any the other customer service assessment body
Opportunity to start a conversation and get students thinking
Opportunity to use Student Ambassadors
A great way of promoting some “you said, we did”
Try something different this Money Week. Get the students to do the work part b)……….
This is a tried and tested method of getting up to date information from students for students. You don’t need to re-invent the wheel year on year.
Keep it simple, keep it relevant!
You can purchase small white boards like this for about a fiver. Ask students to share their top tips, take a photo (with their permission) and share the image of the tip on Instagram, twitter etc.
If, like us, you’re multi campus, we added location tags to show where we got each tip from. This way students know the tip is (hopefully) relevant to them and adding a location gives it better credence and context.
You can then compile a list of all the tips and circulate them under different category headings in one article.Include links to research, apps or other budgeting resources you want to share. Whilst you’re there, please feel free to update the NASMA list from 2012:
Great for getting immediate information
Reusable and sustainable
Offers insight into current trends
Short and snappy tips
Students respond well to peer to peer support
Savvy students love an opportunity to share their ideas
Vindicates hard efforts of budgeting
Gives students a sense of identity and community
Opportunity to start a conversation and get students thinking
Can be the basis for future advice themes