Student Ambassador Update - June 2023

Thank you very much for sending us your updates, as usual it was lovely hearing about what you have been up to.

We have shared great examples of your work below. If you have met with your branch representatives, we hope you have found this useful and are working closely with them to give a student voice to their initiatives. 

Want to continue as a Student Ambassador next year?

We really need YOUR feedback! This will help us to shape and develop the Student Ambassadors Programme.

There is a question on the form related to the continuation of the role. If you do not complete the form, we will take that to understand that you do not wish to continue volunteering as a Student Ambassador next academic year. 

Complete the online feedback form here

Student Ambassador Activity

This is the space where we provide you with an update of each branch region activities. Please feel free to send over updates to us to include.  

Carolina Nyakila and Hanaa Khan – Brunel University

Carolina and Hanaa organised an end of year social in collaboration with the BPS and Brunel Psychology Society. The images below demonstrate what a lovely event it was.

Lyndsey Jayne Gough – Leeds Beckett University

Lyndsey has organised a coffee meet up for July. If you are in the area and would like to go, please contact Lyndsey via [email protected]. 

Tahani Baldwin – University of Birmingham

Tahani took over the BPS West Midlands Twitter account for a week and shared her experience as university student, work experience and discussed future plans. Tahani also organised a coffee meeting with other student ambassadors. This enabled them to get to know each other and discuss future activities. 

Nghi Lam, Shubhi Kohli and Aabhya – University of Manchester

The student ambassadors organised an event at the end of May to promote the BPS. They promoted the event via social media. They organised a stall to promote BPS resources and careers information. The student ambassadors were hoping to organise a social for the society after exam season.  

European Congress of Psychology 2023

The BPS Careers team have been busy organising several events for the European Congress of Psychology 2023. ECP2023 brings together psychologists from across Europe providing an opportunity for them to learn from each other, and to bring together the research, knowledge and innovation that is unique to each country on our continent.    

The event is going to be taking place in Brighton, at the Brighton Centre, located in the heart of the city, which is one of the largest purpose-built conference and entertainment venues in the South East of England. The event will run from Monday 3rd July to Wednesday 6th July 2023, and will be hosted in person. 

We will be hosting be three lunchtime sessions focused upon workforce developments across the UK. The workshops will cover the success of the Clinical Associate in Psychology role, the BPS Wider Psychological Workforce Registration developments, and the BPS Student Ambassador programme, where we have our very own Charlotte Ward (Nottingham Trent University), Tahani Baldwin (University of Birmingham), Monika Pallai (Anglia Ruskin University) and Vlad Makar (University of Leicester) presenting! 

We are also organising a roundtable discussions session on the challenges faced, when trying to gain work experience as a psychology student, where we hope this session will provide a cross-European dialogue on the topic. We know that across Europe, psychology students have a challenge in gaining relevant work experience in psychology, there can be a lack of opportunities, it can be difficult to navigate the confidentiality involved in psychological work, and many struggle to fund unpaid placement opportunities. A psychology employer, a university placement provider and a student will facilitate these discussion, as delegates come together to talk about some of these challenges. 

We will also be on hand throughout the conference with useful literature on psychology careers, which will be available in hard copy and as a QR code.

Find out more about attending the congress

Psychology Careers Festival 2023 [Monday 6th November – Saturday 11th November]

We are excited to announce confirmation of our second BPS Psychology Careers Festival. Last year's festival was such a success, that we thought we'd go bigger and better this year!

Throughout our six-day festival, attendees will access an online conference platform and are able to navigate across multiple different online festival tents, exploring different careers sessions where they will hear from inspirational speakers across a broad range of disciplines. We'll have talks from a number of individuals at different stages of their career, from a variety of different backgrounds.

Attendees will be able to explore the world of 'hidden psychology' - occupations where psychology is applied. We will also be running workshop style sessions so attendees can practice some of those key employability skills needed when transitioning through a psychology career journey.

We will also be hosting an employability fayre, sharing hints and tips for best preparing for a career in psychology, and attendees will have the opportunity to ask questions, chat with and meet up in our online lobby space with speakers and other likeminded attendees! 

Booking will be open shortly for Early Bird tickets so please keep your eyes peeled!

Message from the BPS Academic Publications Team 

Student Reviewers for EDI and Employability: BPS Core Textbooks in Psychology 

Are you interested in helping to shape the future of student textbooks, and benefitting from an early insight into the latest knowledge in the field? 

Support your studies by becoming a student reviewer for the BPS's brand new core textbook series, published in partnership with Routledge! 

The BPS's Academic Publications team are looking to build a student panel (5-8 individuals) who can review new textbook projects at proposal stage and draft manuscript stage, for Equality, Diversity and Inclusivity, and Employability content.  

Key information: 

• We anticipate 3-6 new proposals a year, each taking approximately 30 minutes to review with a turnaround time of 4 weeks. 
• We anticipate between 2-4 draft manuscripts a year, each taking approximately 2-3 hours to review, with a turnaround time of 6 weeks. The manuscript reviewer will receive payment. 
• The same reviewer does not need to review both proposal and manuscript, although that could be helpful. 
• We are seeking 1-2 reviews for each proposal and 1 review per manuscript.  
• All correspondence will be managed via Teams and/or email. 
• Student reviewers are not expected to review or comment on the subject content, which will go through an independent peer-review process. 

Once the Student Textbook Panel is established we will confirm processes and procedures, and share the EDI framework for the series that will help guide feedback. 

Applications: 

If this sounds like something you feel you could make a useful contribution towards and you would like to be considered for the panel, please submit an expression of interest here.  

Closing date: 1 July 2023 

The BPS welcome applications from the following groups of people who are under-represented within psychology: Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic people, people with disabilities and people who identify as LGBTQ+. 

Pre-application questions and applications may be emailed to: Rachel Sangster, Academic Publications Manager, British Psychological Society, at [email protected].

Callout from the Social Media Team

We would love to receive content from you! Some examples of what you could create and send our way are below: 

• Videos, photos, or a short-written description of the activities you have carried out 
• A day in the life of a student ambassador/ psychology student 
• Top tips for revision or any other kind of student content 
• Quotes from yourselves regarding your experience as a Student Ambassador 

Please send them to [email protected].

Events for you to promote within your university

2023 Mental Health Summit

• 15-16 July 
• Online 
• Register for this event

Mental Health Academy (MHA) and the British Psychological Society (BPS) have partnered to bring you one of the most exciting and innovative mental health conferences of the year, the 2023 Mental Health Summit. The Summit brings together 10 leading experts, educators and thought leaders – who will be presenting on a diverse range of topics, from suicide prevention to innovative new treatments in mental health. The Summit brings you a very unique line-up of renowned practitioners, researchers, educators, and thought leaders in mental health 

Poverty and Climate Change: Psychological Perspectives

• 18 July – 5:30pm – 7:00pm 
• Online
• Register for this event 

The BPS South West Branch and DCP South West branch invite you to join us to learn together and to consider how we can build climate awareness into our professional practice and future research. Psychologists have a lot to learn, and to contribute, through engaging with the suffering and resourcefulness of those in the UK, and beyond, who have done least to cause environmental harm. These people are already experiencing the worst of its effects and are facing worse in the future.

Compassion in practice: are we as compassionate as we think?

• 21 July – 6:00pm – 7:00pm 
• Café Sobar, 22 Friar Lane, Nottingham, NG1 6DQ
• Register for this event

Join us in Nottingham for the second in a series of free to attend "Psych at the Mic" events hosted by BPS East Midlands Branch! 

Bridgitte Calder (Principal Forensic Psychologist; Cygnet Health Care) will present on the role of compassion in clinical practice. 

Bridgitte will talk about what it means to turn towards suffering with the kindness, wisdom and courage needed to navigate and alleviate it. 

Theme for July – CELEBRATE

Celebrating your achievements are incredibly important. Please make sure that you take some time out to acknowledge what you have achieved throughout your academic year. The achievements could also be personal or related to your hobbies. Think about what you have achieved throughout the student ambassador programme as well. You've all done such an amazing job! 

Drop In Sessions

Due to exam season fast approaching we will not have a drop-in session. The next drop-in session will be the celebration session which will be held on 27th July at 12pm. Monthly drop-in sessions will then resume from September. 

Student Newsletter/The Psych-Talk Magazine

As a reminder, we love to share your work across our communication channels. If you have carried out an activity within your student ambassador role that you are particularly proud of, please send over a short description of the type of activities you have been doing within your role so far, and perhaps some accompanying photos, to [email protected].