Proud to be PSS
23 Jul 2018
Poppy Humphrey, Off Campus Student Affairs Officer for Manchester Student Homes, tells us about her work and what she enjoys most about working at the University.
As part of a campaign to raise awareness of the different types of work our Professional Support Services (PSS) staff do and the valuable contribution they make to the University, we’ll be bringing you a series of staff profiles from across the PSS. This week we spoke to Poppy Humphrey, Off Campus Student Affairs Officer for Manchester Student Homes.
Tell me about your role
I’m the Off Campus Student Affairs Officer for Manchester Students Homes.
Manchester Student Homes is a jointly-funded department of The University of Manchester and Manchester Metropolitan University. My job therefore involves responding to any issues relating to students in the community, on behalf of both universities. We work closely with a range of partners on a wide variety of different themes that are pertinent to the student experience off campus, for example housing, student safety, both personal and property security, waste and recycling, having fun responsibly the importance of being a good neighbour and much more!
What do you enjoy about your job?
I really enjoy the partnership work that we do here and the variety of the campaigns we work on which keeps the job interesting, from the Students’ Union, to the City Council, Social Responsibility and Residential Life colleagues to the police . Most of all, I like working with students. We work closely with students groups on initiatives such as academic research projects, developing campaigns and consultancy projects, as we recognise its vital that students are at the heart of everything we do here at Manchester Student Homes. We have students working in our office with us, as receptionists, Community Advisors and also Graduate Interns. This gives us essential insight especially when working on particular campaigns, events and ideas – we make sure we’re staying relevant!
No two days are the same, one day I could be working with the police to deliver safety messages, the next I could be working with colleagues from Sustainability or Volunteering on the British Heart Foundation ‘Give It Don’t Bin It Campaign’ and then I could be engaging with student focus groups to develop our Halls 2 Home campaign. It’s different every day!
The role has enabled lots of opportunities for growth and development. I get loads of support from my manager, Cooper Healey, and together we are very active in the International Town and Gown Association, an international network which provides support and best practice to officers doing a similar role to me from all over the world. After two years consecutive study, I am now the only qualified UK off campus based practitioner. Off the back of that, Cooper and I have established a Town and Gown Association in the UK, Cooper is the Chair and I am the Regional Representative for the North West. In 2014 and 2016 we hosted two very well attended conferences with speakers from the UK, US and Canada, and are now planning another conference with our colleagues at Queen’s University in Belfast later this year.
We’re also part of a group call the Association for Student Residential Accommodation (ASRA) – I was recently appointed IT and Communications Officer, not only does this give us an opportunity to strengthen the profile of Manchester and all the great things we’re doing but I can also feedback best practise to universities from across the country.
What do you like about working at the University?
I think it’s great that there are a lot of opportunities to develop at University especially through schemes like Investing in Success. I’d never worked for an organisation before that has been so willing to support and develop its staff. The whole time I’ve worked here I’ve always felt highly valued and I think that’s because the University invests in its staff. This ethos creates a culture whereby if you want to try new things, especially when it comes to improving the student experience, you’ll find support. There’s always the potential to grow and develop in your role here. I also really like the people too – it’s a really good bunch, that makes coming into work an absolute pleasure.