As the Paperclip family grows, so does the list of universities who have taken proactive steps to improve their student experience.

In our last post, we explored the true cost of university for British undergraduates in 2018. With the total surpassing an eye-watering £140,000 for a three year degree course, higher education providers and students themselves are looking for ways to both save and earn money during their studies.

This was the primary motivation for Paperclip to create our innovative platform to help students save money on core university essentials (textbooks, laptops study materials, etc) as well as giving them an opportunity to earn quick cash decluttering.

Paperclip heads to Uxbridge

Located at the very edge of West London, Brunel University was founded in 1966. The uni organised into three colleges and now caters for 13,000 students. The university has a busy, vibrant and diverse campus which caters to students from all over the world.

After beginning preliminary discussions with some of the uni's closest neighbours, we approached The Union of Brunel Students to explore the possibility of them trialling a Paperclip marketplace in time for the start of the academic year 2018/19.

Speaking about the meeting, COO Alan said "We approached the Union of Brunel Students back in the Spring. After speaking with the team, they agreed to go ahead with the marketplace. It's great to have another London university on board, especially as they have agreed to link their platform to the marketplaces we have already provided to the students at UCL, King's College London and Queen Mary University. This provides users with an even more items available to purchase and gives students a greater chance of selling their unwanted items."

Naomi Candorf, Advertising and Fundraising Administrator at The Union of Brunel Students added "The Union of Brunel Students is excited to be working with Paperclip to create a marketplace that is beneficial to all involved."

Team Brunel assemble!

With the Union staff now fully onboard, we began our quest to assemble a team of Student Brand Ambassadors to get the word out about the new marketplace and let other students know about the benefits of signing up for free.

Within hours of putting out the ad, we were inundated with applications from Brunel Uni students looking for an opportunity to gain some real work experience and to help us get the word out about the new marketplace.

Sadly, though we had some amazing applicants, we could only select our top five to join the team.

One of the students who stood out was Communications & Media Studies undergraduate, Oliviyah Harry. Asked about her new role, Oliviyah said "I'm really looking forward to working on this project. Not only is this is a great opportunity for students to save money, but it is a great opportunity for me to gain some real work experience on campus."

With such strong backing from the Union, the Paperclip marketing team have been granted access to not only this year's Brunel Fresher's Fayre, but to other key activity days throughout the year.

Paperclip CMO Laurence added "We are delighted that Naomi and The Union team are so committed to integrating their new marketplace into student's daily life and we are grateful for the access given. We are here to make this a success on campus, and with the help of the team at Uxbridge, we have no doubts it will be."

Does your university need it's own bespoke student marketplace? If so, get in touch here.