Declined by an Institution

On Handshake, each institution is independently responsible for approving or declining employer requests to connect and subsequent job postings, and every institution uses different deciding factors when selecting which employers to connect with, which roles to provide, and which job postings to make available for their students.

Learn how a decline is processed, how you are notified of the status of your connection with the institution, and what to expect if your company is declined after it was initially approved. 

Topics: 

• Overview of declined requests
• Declined after approval 
• Decline notifications
• Following up with an institution

Overview of declined requests

If an institution declines your initial request to connect or declines your company anytime after approval, they are prompted to select a reason for the decline.

The reason provided allows the employer to learn specifically why they were declined by the institution.  

The selected reason is added as a comment to the institution's overview page in Handshake, and is visible to both the institution's team and your company profile's connected teammates.

When a job posting is declined, institutions are also prompted to select a reason for the decline. The details can be accessed by navigating to the job in Handshake. Learn how to How to View Comments on a Job Posting.

Some institutions may choose to invite you to resubmit a job for approval, based on certain changes that are needed. For more information on job decline notifications, or if you've been invited to resubmit a posting, refer to Resubmit your Job for Approval.

Declined after approval 

A company that is initially approved and later denied by an institution cannot post a new job, fair, or event there.

Additionally, the following is impacted: 

• Search  
  • Employers can no longer search for students from that specific institution.
• Messaging
  • Employers cannot send any messages to ‌students from that specific institution. 
  • Note: if you have any active messages with students at the time the institution declines your company, you may continue to message them.
• Jobs
  • Jobs posted to the institution that were either approved, or in a "pending" or "in progress" status, will be updated to declined.
  • Any jobs posted to the institution that were closed remain closed. 
  • Existing jobs that were HS+, self-service subscription gets canceled or downgraded (if multi-job toggle is on)
• Fairs
  • Registrations for career fairs hosted by their institution that are approved or pending will be cancelled, and registrants and the associated contacts will be notified.
• Events
  • Event requests that are either approved or pending and have not yet taken place will be declined, and registrants and attendees will be notified.
• Interview Schedules
  • Interview schedules that have been approved or pending at the institution will be declined and registrants will be notified.
• Applications 
  • When an employer is declined by the institution, existing applications remain available to employers, and they can still view documents submitted by those applicants.
  • Note: students are not notified when employers or jobs they applied to are declined by institutions.

Decline notifications

At the time of the declined request to connect, an automated email and Handshake notification is sent to the teammate who posted the job, depending on their notification preferences. Explore your Default Notification Preferences (Employers).

In Handshake

1. Click the globe icon in the top-right corner of any page in Handshake, to the left of your name.

2. Select Institution from the left sidebar, then locate the notification by institution name. 

The notification reads "A staff member at INSTITUTION NAME has declined your institution approval."

3. The institution name is hyperlinked. Click directly on the institution name to view additional details. 

Via email

1. Email notifications are sent to the requestor's email address (connected to the Handshake user account). 

The email will read: 

Sent from: "handshake@notifications.joinhandshake.co.uk"

Subject: "Your request to connect with an institution has been declined."

Body: 

"INSTITUTION NAME declined your institution approval request.

Hello NAME,

Following up with an institution

To learn more about the decline, we recommend contacting the Career Services department at the institution that declined your request.

To contact the institution, search for and click on the name of the institution in the search bar on the white toolbar. 

Their contact information will be located to the left of their profile page in the Contact Information section.