Although the role is relatively new in our universities, policy advisers have probably been around for as long as there have been politicians. We may be working in education and have a more specialist, institutionally-focused knowledge base compared to the Westminster generalist, but our skill-sets are similar.
We need to be able to quickly get a broad grasp of a topic and relate it to wider issues or to corporate priorities and strategies. We need to think through the motivations and interests of different parties so we can communicate effectively with them. We need to weigh up evidence, identify gaps and construct persuasive arguments.
I started thinking about this through my involvement as principal adviser to the Wilson review of university-industry collaboration, announced in the white paper, a key dimension of which is the translation of graduate skills into employment. In terms of policy jobs, I've probably met more history graduates than those of any other discipline. Being one myself, I've always wondered what it was about studying history that prepared us for our roles. With the review in mind, I'm now also interested in how aware current and prospective history students are about the many different careers, such as policy work, their skills equip them well to pursue or how able they feel to articulate what those skills are and why they're valuable to employers. Or is it the case that the status of 'knowledge' is so much higher that many feel challenged to explain the relevance of history to the career paths they want to follow?
Making and influencing policy requires a range of skills. Policy teams, like the university executives within which they work, are in a sense interdisciplinary contexts in that one person, with his or her particular mindset, ways of thinking, and prior experience and knowledge is unlikely to have everything that a project or problem requires. How much diversity do these, or indeed other workplace settings tend to have? Do managers actively seek to recruit a productive mix of disciplinary backgrounds or do they tend to surround themselves with like-minded individuals?
Our fourth sandwich placement student recently started in the Hertfordshire policy team, and all have been from the university's business school. In fact, almost all of the applicants over the years have been from business, students who must complete a year in a structured placement to earn their degrees. Where such opportunities are available but optional there seems to be much less interest and the downward trend in placements nationally was one of the reasons behind the commissioning of the review.
The policy placement students have been real assets to the team, complementing the two historians with their own distinctive skills. They bring a real attention to detail and positive, responsive attitude when it comes to customer service, for example. But how to induce a life sciences student, a geographer or a creative artist to apply? Each would bring knowledge and insight from their respective areas, and they would also bring the skills and thinking of their disciplines.
They would also gain from the experience, as placement students tend to achieve better degrees and to go on more quickly to higher-paid jobs. They are valued by employers, something that universities and students internationally have known for some time with the popularity of Erasmus and Study Abroad programmes.
Should we in the UK be more committed in this area, with a real drive for students from all disciplines to have some kind of external experience during their programme, whether study abroad or a work placement?
The challenge to employers is to work with universities to make sense of what graduates bring from their different disciplinary backgrounds and mix of academic, extra-curricular and external experiences so that new employees are able to contribute well more quickly. I hadn't given much thought to what it was that a business student brings to the policy team. Maybe universities can lead the way here in their own recruitment of students, leading to a constructive dialogue with business to improve the articulation between study and work.
Alix Green is head of policy, Office of the Vice-Chancellor, University of Hertfordshire
This content is brought to you by Guardian Professional. To get more articles like this direct to your inbox, sign up for free to become a member of the Higher Education Network.
