Student Impact Internship: LGBTQ+ Student Success Intern

Start Date: Wednesday 27th May 2026

End Date: 17th July 2026

Hours per week: 5-10 hours

Faculty/Service: Educational Engagement

Location: Hybrid

Salary: £13.87 per hour

Number of positions: 1

Closing date: 23:59, Wednesday 13th May 2026

The LGBTQ+ Student Success Task & Finish Group sits within Educational Engagement and consists of colleagues working across Access and Outreach and Student Success. The group aims to discover and understand barriers and obstacles to LGBTQ+ student success to address them, part especially non-continuation rates amongst LGBTQ+ students. This involves recognising good practice and positive provision relating to LGBTQ+ Student Success at the University of Leeds and Leeds University Union, consulting with key campus stakeholders including the LGBT LUU Society, the LGBT+ Staff Network and the University Executive Group LGBT+ Champion. Our membership consists of two co-chairs, a secretary, a Student Belonging Lead, a Student Academic Success Lead, Communications Lead, Student Opportunity Lead, and Access and Outreach Lead, who will liaise with various internal and external stakeholders to initially audit what support is currently in place for students.

Our work is intended to support the Access and Student Success Strategy by focusing on continuation and progression amongst students that identify as part of the LGBTQ+ community, aiming to increase a sense of belonging for these students to increase continuation and progression rates.

By considering Access and Outreach work, we are contributing to the Student Recruitment Strategy, aiming to recruit a diverse cohort by ensuring outreach staff have a solid understanding of relevant LGBTQ+ support services when promoting the university to prospective students across the country. This will allow potential applicants to identify the University of Leeds as a safe space for them to study and succeed. This is also informed by our awareness within Educational Engagement of current parental concerns around support at university and the need to prioritise this.

We are also looking at additional information within the LGBTQ+ student data, to identify key trends, based on factors such as disability, parent-School, gender and home-neighbourhood when it comes to non-continuation rates. This is to understand where our efforts are needed most and thus tailoring the resources we produce to more specific groups, such as financial support for potentially estranged students.

LGBTQ+ sources of support from the university, the union and across the city will be compiled into one resource, which will be utilised by both potential applicants, assisted by the Access and Outreach strand, and used when disseminating information about support services available to current students.

By looking at current resources, and speaking with current students about their experiences, we intend to create additional resources that better serve LGBTQ+ students at Leeds and ensures they are less likely to decide to leave the University.

We are seeking the support of an intern to assist with auditing current LGBT+ activity on campus at the University of Leeds and on a civil level across the city, alongside support offered across the HE Sector. The intern will compile this research into a report and make suggestions to improve the experience for LGBT+ students at the University. There will also be the option for the recruited intern to create presentation slides to assist outreach activity and assist with website development to pull together the support/activities captured through their research.  An intern will be transformational for our work, as they can bridge the gap between staff and students. We are working for students and are informed by their data and real-life experiences, so having a current student assisting us with this work will help us access spaces typically hard to reach.  

The intern will be able to inform us about what methods of communication work well for current students, including posters around the Students Union or on social media, and how easily accessible current opportunities are. Other key parts of their role will be to summarise key findings in a report; make recommendations for action to the LGBTQ+ task and finish group and then contribute to updates at service-wide meetings.  

We are keen for the work completed by the intern to be at least partly informed by their interests. We have different members of the group focusing on different areas, such as data work, communications, and different intersections such as sexuality and race, or sexuality and neurodivergence, which we are open for the interns to get involved with. In line with our aim to contribute to the creation of a diverse cohort, we are exploring how the intern could contribute to the applicant experience, perhaps via an LGBTQ+ support services stand, or getting involved in current outreach activity. 

This internship will allow the student to communicate and work with groups they might not have encountered before, such as staff-led LGBTQ+ initiatives or student networks. They will also develop skills and confidence in conducting surveys, report writing, and transferring and tailoring information to suit different audiences. By the end of the project, we hope the interns would gain confidence in public speaking, based on opportunities throughout the project to lead discussions with current and potential students, alongside presenting regularly to the group and wider service.

The intern will also develop experience managing their own project, at least partially informed by their own interests. Whilst they will be supported throughout, the intern will need to manage their own time and set targets to meet goals, both self-imposed and set by the group. More broadly, this internship will foster an understanding of the barriers some students experience when accessing and undertaking Higher Education, which could inform an intern’s future career decisions, but also empathetic skills, both on return to their studies and in their wider lives.

• A current University of Leeds student for the duration of this internship (including postgraduates and those returning from work placement or study abroad years)
• Comfortable working with diverse groups of people at different levels, as the work will involve working with members of the group, current students and prospective students on Open Days or Offer Holder Days
• Good verbal and written communication skills, with an ability to tailor information to suit different audiences is also important, as their work will involve creating written resources based on data-driven research
• Excellent time-management skills and an ability to adapt to changing priorities - the work is sequential so will be informed by research we are currently undertaking; therefore our project priorities will need to adapt
• Experience presenting would be helpful, as our intern will present their recommendations to the group, and hopefully our wider service. 

• Awareness of the experiences of marginalised groups within Higher Education, or a desire to understand this more
• Basic awareness of GDPR, or an ability to handle sensitive information with empathy.