Be part of a team that helps shape the
lives of our future generations

I’ve worked for UPP as a receptionist at Broadgate Park in Nottingham for 8 years and still enjoy my job as much as the day I joined.

Being in the reception means I am the first point of contact for students who come to us for a range of questions, queries and general admin. This includes checking emails, monitoring for complaints, raising maintenance requests, checking in and checking out students, issuing key loans, processing keys and parking permits. We also help point students in the right direction for dedicated support on areas such as health, wellbeing, visas and finance. As students are at the centre of what we do I liaise with other departments across UPP and the university to solve student issues and to align our student experience programmes and activities with the wider university and business.

The team I work closely with are great and we’re very supportive of one another, which we need to be in this type of role because no two days are ever the same and we can face some very challenging times but working as a team means we can help one another as well as the students.

A large part of my role is ensuring students are happy in their accommodation and that they have the experience they expected and wanted from living in university residential accommodation. We have a Res x team who are dedicated to hosting fun, social events for students and we work closely with UPPs Student Experience team to develop these and promote across the Home at Halls app.

I work with a lot of different people across the campuses I work at and we’re a real team who support each other. The people I work with definitely make the job.

I have worked at UPP since August 2021 currently I run the reception meaning that I help students with whatever they need and also make sure that our operations run as smoothly as possible. I was actually a former student who lived in UPP residences so it’s testament to the business that I wanted to work for you after I graduated because of the great experience I had whilst living in UPP accommodation.

I currently work 7am –11am every morning but there is a lot of opportunity for overtime and flexibility which allows me to change shifts or work more, such as weekends or 3pm –7pm as and when I need it. This has been really beneficial for me and something that other members of the team find useful too. I also work across several sites which I enjoy because I get to go out, speak to more students, help others and have variety in my day to day role.

I think the fact that I have not long graduated and have just been through what students have does help them as it’s easier for us to relate to each other and understand the experiences that they’re facing. This is another reason why I wanted to work for UPP, to help students the same way UPP helped me and I do believe I’m achieving that which brings a lot of satisfaction to the job even when it’s a challenge.

I’ve been at UPP since January 2021 as a receptionist at Hull and it’s a fulfilling job to know that you’re making an impact on people’s lives every day.

My job is on the front of house team which means I’m the first point of contact for students from collecting post, dealing with general queries including logging maintenance issues, issuing key cards to new residents and existing residents as well as liaising with the university staff on student matters. I also help the office and management team with day to day duties, including contacting students regular via e-mail to raise any issues with-in the flats. My working hours are during the day so I provide a handover to the night team after every shift, so we keep a consistent log if issues and work to be completed. As you can imagine the role is varied but I enjoy working with the whole team, from office to maintenance and the cleaners, you get to know everyone.

I really love working with the students. You meet some real characters, and they are friendly. You can tell they see us a friendly face as they sometimes pop in for a chat, ask how we are and what we’re doing. I have added my football clubs crest- Manchester United to my work badge and this is often a conversation starter with students and from this you can also engage with them to build up a repour. As much as we are there for them, they make our job worthwhile too. It’s a testament to the whole site team that students feel so comfortable with us and do see us a confidant at times and someone to go when they’re in trouble.

We do work hard to ensure students have the best experience and are happy in halls but we also have a laugh and the team at Hull appreciate each other and spend time away from the work-place together. With my colleagues this is demonstrated in such ways as staff nights or weekends together outside of work and when in work celebrating birthdays by putting banners and balloons etc at the staff members work station, in addition to buying a birthday card and cake! Especially when you work on the front of house team, you get students wishing you a happy birthday and this shows how much people appreciate and care for one another.

I joined UPP in 2022 as a receptionist at Gill Street North and South, Nottingham Trent University. I know it sounds cliché but no two days really are not the same, because you’re working with students anything can happen. This is the first time they’re away from home and you want to make sure they’re happy, and if they’re not it’s our job to solve that. We deal with everything from lost parcels, lost parcels to maintenance issues and flatmate complaints, even working out how to get UberEats delivered to their accommodation. You become their support system and our whole team is dedicated to listening, understanding and ensuring the students walk away happy, confident and their problems solved.

At UPP we’re part of a family, this includes the cleaners, maintenance and the health and safety team too. We’re all working together for the same thing, to make a difference for students and make sure they’re happy whilst living in UPP accommodation. And it’s the little things that make your job worthwhile, like the reaction students have when they receive an unexpected parcel from home – their eyes light up! You see everyone gathering round too to see what they got.

We are definitely a family here.

I have worked at UPP for 14 years as a Mechanical and Electrical Supervisor. I manage a team that includes a plumber, heating engineer, joiner and two electricians. I sort out any day-to-day problems in the halls. I’ll order parts, make sure jobs are done within SLA, which are tight turnaround times, audit our jobs to ensure we are meeting our SLAs, plan the maintenance work and manage our database so we have at least one critical spare on site at any time which means we can respond within our SLA.

Our team work very closely with students, we’re always out onsite – it’s not a role where you sit behind a desk and that’s why I enjoy it too. We listen to our students and have a great relationship with them and that makes our job worthwhile. They have a great sense of humour and are interested in what we are doing and ask if they can help out at all. We want to ensure that students are completely satisfied with the maintenance, so we always ask if there is anything else we can help with, those little niggles that can be solved and enhance the overall experience. We also work extremely closely with residence managers and heads of estates and the good relationship we have with them means we can solve maintenance issues as quickly as possible.

It’s the team that make all the difference and I can say wholeheartedly that I’ve got a fantastic team, they’re always willing to go the extra mile.

I have been working at UPP Leeds Beckett for 3 years, currently I’m a Management Assistant but I was initially hired as Facilities Management Assistant. Career development is a priority at UPP and people have a lot of opportunities to grow and be able to vertically as well as horizontally across the business. UPP paid for me to get my Management and Leadership Aspire 3 Diploma which I achieved alongside working.

In my current role I am responsible for training new starters, supporting team members when delivering training and manage all student experience on site. I’m also acting as a deputy for residence managers. As you can see my role is varied and I’m very happy to get involved in multiple projects and happy to do so when it helps out the team.

If I was to say what happened on typical day it would be reviewing the maintenance log, sourcing and buying parts for the maintenance team, support on events such as sorting the logistics etc. I also write up the meeting minutes and manage the communications – this ranges from creating copy for the Home at Halls app, emails and intranet updates for the wider UPP teams and weekly roundups for our site team.

As I manage the student experience on site I work really closely with the students, we know each other on a first name basis and our team are the one they go to whenever they have a problem. This can range from flatmate complaints, maintenance issues to student wellbeing, mental health and even financial help. We listen to the students make sure their voices are heard and provide onsite socials for them.