Statement on Employer Impartiality

The Careers Service offers an impartial service to the users of our service (Cambridge students, Postdoc researchers and alumni). This impartiality is core to our work and is written into our membership body’s professional standards and code of ethics.  

Users of the Service are free to make their own choices about who they do/don’t wish to engage with, and our position is that it is not for the Careers Service to act as censor nor to make value judgements about specific employers and/or labour market areas. Our aim is to ensure that our users are able to make good decisions based on their own unique circumstances, aspirations and values.  

Where we have to make choices about the presence of one employer over another (e.g. if an event had more prospective exhibitors than space) we will make those choices based on student interest/demand, whether a particular employer has other opportunities to engage with Cambridge students (perhaps through a presentation or skills session) and in order to provide a balanced range of organisations at a given event. 

The Careers Service is a constituent part of the University and aligns its policies with those set at the University level. If the University updates its policies regarding relationships with specific industries or employers, the Careers Service will adjust its own policies accordingly.

The University has decided not to accept research or philanthropic funding from fossil fuel companies whose business models do not align with the Net Zero 2050 (NZ2050) target, except in exceptional circumstances. As a result, the Careers Service will also not accept these types of payments from organisations that do not comply with this standard. Organisations who are not aligned with the NZ2050 target may still be able to attend careers fairs and events as commercial agreements are permitted under the policy. This enables attendees to decide for themselves whether to engage with these organisations as potential employers.