Understanding Institution Approvals

Each institution partnered with Handshake must review and approve each company profile before employer users attached to that company are able to post jobs to that institution and connect with their students. This resource provides an overview of that process. 

How requests are made

When a new employer user creates a Handshake account, they can connect with an existing company profile, or if their company is not already on Handshake, they can create a new company profile. Once a company connection is established, the employer user requests access to specific institutions.

If joining an existing company profile, all new users must be approved to attach to the company profile. Once approved, if the institutions requested have already approved the company profile, they will be automatically added to the Favourites list. If this is a new institution connection request, the institution will need to process the request. 

Employers can request to connect with more institutions at any time, not just during the signup process. For details, refer to Institution Network Management: Requesting, Adding, and Removing Institutions.

For our recommendations, check out How Can I Get Approved By Institutions?

How requests are processed

Each institution partnered with Handshake is independently responsible for approving and giving roles to their employers or declining requests, and every institution has their own deciding factors when selecting which employers to connect with and which jobs to approve.

Institutions rely on several factors when considering approval, including their history with the employer, whether the employer has been approved by other institutions, and how well established or recognisable the employer is, to name a few. 

While a request is pending or in progress, institutions may communicate with employers via comments to gather more information or share unique guidelines for connecting with their students. 

While Handshake is unable to provide insight into specific requests, we require institutions to share a reason when an employer is declined. Check out more information and how to followup if you've been Declined by an Institution.