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Student Volunteers: A National Profile

Clare Holdsworth's report for Volunteering England uses Futuretrack data to explore student volunteering.

Student Volunteers: A National Profile 

Executive summary

• 15.3% of undergraduates reported volunteering with a charity in their first year of studies during the 2006-7 academic year.
• Volunteering rates were highest among students studying medicine/dentistry and social sciences. They were lowest for those in the broad subject grouping of physical sciences (including maths, computing and engineering), architecture and planning and some arts programmes.
• Students at higher ranking universities (ranked by entry tariff points) reported higher volunteering rates than those at other universities. Students at middle ranking universities reported lowest volunteering rates.
• Volunteering rates were higher among some minority groups: ethnic minority students, students with a disability, and those with caring responsibilities.
• While gender and socio-economic background were associated with variation in volunteering rates, the differences were small.
• Students who volunteer were more likely to take part in other extracurricular activities, both on and off campus. Working during term time had very little impact on reported volunteering. The influence of the type of Higher Education Institution (HEI) on volunteering rates cannot be fully explained by the characteristics of students. For example, students from middle class backgrounds were more likely to report volunteering at highest tariff HEIs compared to students from the same background at medium or lower tariff institutions.
• The higher rates of volunteering among students from minority ethnic groups appears to be associated with both religious identity and the fact that these students were more likely to get involved in other forms of student extracurricular activities.
• Student volunteering can be separated into activities associated with students’ courses or future careers and those activities that are unrelated. Roughly one-third of volunteering activities were course or career related compared to two-thirds that were unrelated. Study or career related volunteering was more common among medical and social science students, and among non-traditional students (i.e. mature students from less advantaged backgrounds and studying at lower tariff HEIs).
• Students were asked about reasons for volunteering. The most common reason given was 'volunteering to help someone or their community', with more than two-thirds of students agreeing with this statement. Employment-related reasons were more important for students from non-traditional backgrounds. Younger students, those studying physical sciences, and men were more likely to agree that meeting people was a reason for getting involved.