Pathways to Professional Services in Higher Education

The Pathways to Professional Services in Higher Education programme will be returning for 2026.

In June 2026, a total of approximately 15 successful students, selected from a range of disciplines and year groups, will undertake four days of experiential learning, delivered by professional services colleagues at the University of Exeter, followed by completing a 35 hour fully-funded internship within one of our directorates at the University of Exeter.

Get in touch

If you have any questions regarding the Professional Pathways programme, please contact the team at: professionalpathways@exeter.ac.uk

Employers can get involved in a Professional Pathway programme by:

delivering a one-hour training session
providing a business project for students to work on during the training
offering a 35 hour internship within your directorate

Further information for employers

Could you offer an internship opportunity?

If you would like to express an interest in hosting an intern for Professional Pathways 2026 (internships will take place late June/early July), please complete the short form and we'll be in touch. Applications to submit an internship will open early 2026. Please note, if you are a student this is not the correct form and please email the team instead at professionalpathways@exeter.ac.uk who will advise you on how to register your interest or how to apply, if applications are open.

Internship eligibility

The role or project must:

Be within one of the university's professional services directorates.
Use undergraduate level skills, knowledge and/or experience. Please note, the roles should not be too specific to certain degree programmes or require niche technical skills, as the scheme is open to all students so we can't guarantee who will be successful in gaining a place on the Pathway.
Aid career development.
Include tasks and responsibilities normally associated with a graduate level position.
Provide training and support.
Be a total of 35 hours and be undertaken either part-time or full-time between 22 June - 3 July 2026.

Training programme

We will be delivering the training element of the programme on our Streatham Campus in Exeter between 15 - 18 June 2026. The training is designed to give students an insight into Professional Services in Higher Education, covering as many areas as possible while also providing them with the opportunity to meet professionals working in the different directorates.

For reference, please see below the various professional services areas covered by colleagues across different directorates in our 2024 Pathways to Professional Services in Higher Education training programme (the programme did not take place in 2025). If you and/or your team would be interested in delivering a session, we would be happy to hear from you at: professionalpathways@exeter.ac.uk.

Professional services areas covered in our 2024 Pathways to Professional Services in Higher Education training programme:

Education Innovation
Learning and Development
PS Connect
Equality, Diversity and Inclusion
Marketing and Communications
Business Managers
Student Employability and Academic Success
Digital
Finance

Could you provide a group project?

During the training days (15 – 18 June 2026), students will engage in a group project based on a sector-related business challenge provided by a particular directorate. This opportunity allows students to apply the knowledge and experiences gained in their training to a set task, which could be particularly of benefit to departments with under-resourced projects. Students will collaborate for 2-3 hours daily from Monday to Wednesday and present their findings on Thursday 18 June between 10am - 1pm on our Streatham Campus in Exeter. We encourage colleagues who submit projects to attend the presentations, providing valuable feedback and engaging with the students directly.

Ideally, colleagues will be offering a project alongside hosting an intern, as your matched student intern(s) would then also be allocated your group project, allowing them to gain insights into your area of work before starting their internship. The project task must differ from the submitted internship but can complement it. Interested colleagues should contact the team at: professionalpathways@exeter.ac.uk or indicate their interest through the vacancy form when submitting internship opportunities.

Selecting your intern

All students will go through a rigorous recruitment and selection process conducted by the Professional Pathways team, to ensure we select the best candidates.

Students successful in gaining a place on the programme, will be presented with all the internships opportunities on offer and asked to identify their preferences. We will make the final decision of who will be matched to your opportunity and as such, you will not need to undertake any recruitment or selection process of our students.

Once we have identified the most suitable intern for you, we will send you their details in May 2026. We very much hope that you will be satisfied with our selection, however if for any reason this is not the case, you will have the opportunity to withdraw from the scheme. Unfortunately, at this stage of the recruitment process, we will not be able to find a replacement intern.

Internship training and support

We ask that all hosts work through a basic induction with their new intern(s). You are welcome to complete your own induction or you may wish to use the Professional Pathways Internship induction checklist we have put together. You can download this checklist here: Pathways induction checklist

We have also put together some notes of guidance for hosting an intern via the Professional Pathway programme. You can view these here: Employer Host Notes of Guidance

We ask employers to set clear objectives for their intern(s) and be available to provide information and guidance throughout the 35 hour internship.

The Professional Pathways Team will be available during the internship to support you and your intern(s) should this be required.

Internship feedback

At the end of the internship, we ask that you please complete the Feedback Form. This will be emailed to you shortly after the end of the internship and your comments will be taken into account during our evaluation exercise.

Internship terms and conditions

All parties (the internship line manager, the Professional Pathways team and the student), must adhere to the Internal Internship Agreement. This agreement ensures the student is committed to the internship and both the internship line manager and the Professional Pathways team understand the remit of their duty of care for the student. This document must be signed by all three parties before the internship can begin.

Feedback from previous line managers

Hear from colleagues who have previously hosted an intern via our Pathways to Professional Services in Higher Education programme:

"I had the great privilege of welcoming one of the UoE students to the PS Connect team as part of the Professional Pathways Programme. This experience has been immensely beneficial for both sides - our team has gained valuable insights and in-depth data analysis from the student, which has further enhanced our work. From the student's feedback, I understand that they highly valued the opportunity to apply their knowledge in real-case scenarios, gain valuable insights into many areas of the working environment and UoE Professional services, and discover a new interest in Project Management. Thank you for creating this great programme!" (Ewa Murphy, UoE Corporate Services, PS Connect)

"I can't recommend this enough to people. It does take some of your time to plan for them and ensure they get your attention while with you, but this can really help you if you focus the work and get the best out of everyone's time. We had things we wanted to create but just could not get to it, but having the interns meant that we were able to create and use their ideas and skills. We got great work from our lovely interns and it is great to feel that you are offering opportunity to expand someone's skills and experience that might help them grow and get further opportunities in the future. Everyone is helping each other." (Vics Brown, Residence Life - Wellbeing)

"Professional Pathways is a unique blend of student training and group work led by qualified staff and it is business focussed, which leads into the internship - the benefit of this is students are well trained, motivated and part of a community that wants to succeed, making it much more impactful for students and their employers than a more straightforward internship." (Oliver Laity, SEAS - Careers Information)

"[Our intern] was a joy to work with during [their] week with us in the fire safety team. [They] worked diligently and overcame every obstacle to complete our assembly point mapping project within the timeframe. Everything was planned and prepared by the Professional Pathways team and we had no glitches at all. Thank you." (Helen Asher, Health and Safety - Fire Safety)

"Being able to give an insight to the Residence Operations team's roles and responsibilities to our Intern was a delight. I would recommend the Professional Pathways programme to colleagues as it opens up a whole new dimension for students to understand how PS help support the University. It was a really positive experience and my Intern couldn't have been more enthusiastic and committed during [their] time with us. A big thank you to the Professional Pathways team for organising this opportunity." (Liz Mossman, CRC - Residential Services)

"Professional Pathways internships provide employers with the opportunity to get fresh insights and an extra pair of hands to fulfil a short project that has mutual benefits. I would recommend the opportunity to employers." (Julia Paci, Exeter Innovation - Degree Apprenticeships)