Okay, pipe down. When we say ‘extracurricular activities’ it’s not a euphemism for the sorts of hijinks that students get up to at university.

No, these are extracurricular activities in the more traditional sense of things you can do that help you to become a well-rounded, capable person, and also give you some really good stuff to put on your CV.

You see, the job market is as competitive for graduates as it is for school-leavers. Just having a degree simply doesn’t cut it any more. Even if you studied at the most ivory of the UK’s ivory towers and got a first with lots of gold stars plastered all over it, you’re not guaranteed a job just on the strength of that academic performance.

There’s a simple reason for this. Although being intelligent and having the skills required to get great university grades are very important, they’re not the only qualities that employers are looking for. They’re also looking for people that have skills that library time and essay writing don’t necessarily bring, such as organisation, people skills and leadership. The sorts of things people who run companies need to use every day to motivate their people and make sure things get done on time.

But that doesn’t mean that you can’t develop these skills while at university. As pretty much any undergraduate will tell you, there’s much more to university life than studying. And by that we don’t just mean the nights spent on the Student Union dancefloor.

Wherever you study, university life will offer you bags of opportunities to get involved with groups, initiatives and organisations that will help you to become the sort of super-capable professional that your future employers want you to be.

And you know what? Getting involved in uni life through these opportunities won’t just look good on your CV; it’ll probably also be great fun and an opportunity to get involved in some of those ‘extracurricular activities’ you thought we were talking about when you started reading this.

So if you’re still weighing up your UCAS offers against one another, perhaps it’s time to factor in what extracurricular opportunities your top contenders could offer you.

Without further ado, then, here are three of our favourite things you can do at uni to have a great time and strengthen your CV and employability into the bargain.

#1: Running or setting up a society

Any old student can, of course, join a society; and in Fresher’s weeks the length and breadth of this isle thousands join a variety of serious, wacky, intellectual or sporty clubs and societies that let them indulge in or pick up a new hobby or interest.

But being a bog-standard member of a society is not the same as running one or setting one up. Doing that takes up many hours of your time, and also requires you to do things like organise meetings, plan and run events, market the society and handle its finances and budget. In other words, you’ll need to do the sorts of things you could well be asked to do in a proper job.

#2: Getting involved in student media

Pretty much any Student Union will have its own newspaper. And the bigger SUs nowadays seem to have their own media empires that extend from traditional print journalism to radio, the web and even TV channels.

All of which means that there are numerous ways you can get involved with your SU’s media output. You could try your hand at writing articles; you could get trained up to do the graphic-design side of things; you could present your own radio show; or you could help out with the admin work that ensures deadlines are met and advertising revenues are collected.

So whether you dream of a life as a hotshot reporter, developing a good eye for aesthetics or life in the world of media sales, getting involved in student media presents a wealth of great opportunities.

#3: Becoming a Student Union representative

Newspapers and radio stations are just two of the many services that Student Unions offer. In the majority of cases they are at the very core of student life, providing entertainment and other fun stuff as well as guidance services covering a range of areas, from counselling to finance. And they are also the body that represents the views of students within the university, ensuring that their interests are taken into account when big decisions are made by the powers that be.

It should come as no surprise that an institution with such a wide range of functions that represents thousands of people doesn’t just magically run itself. However, some people are surprised to learn that it is in fact the students themselves who run the union, rather than simply a group of employees. In fact, the majority of student unions are run by a team of elected representatives drawn from the student population. Having stood for election to fill a particular post, such as entertainment, sport, finance, welfare or even overall leadership of the Union, they then take responsibility for the Union’s handling of that area.

Needless to say, this is a big responsibility. So big, in fact, that at some universities it constitutes a full-time position, with students either taking a sabbatical from their studies or occupying their post after graduating. And positions that require big responsibility also require big skills. So a term as SU president or one of the other positions is sure to represent a huge plus point on your CV when it comes to applying for graduate jobs.