Student Experience and Wellbeing Manager - Social Sciences - Grade 7 - 44867

College of Social Sciences

University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham UK

Full time starting salary is normally in the range £30,942 to £40,322. With potential progression once in post to £42,792 a year

Grade 7

Full time

Permanent

Closing Date: 18th August 2021

Role Summary

Working closely with the Head of Learning and Teaching Operations (Student Support) and Deputy Director of Education (Quality and Student Enhancement), the post holders will perform a critical role in supporting and underpinning the educational activity of the College helping to develop the strategic direction of Student Experience and Wellbeing. It is important to the College that its students have a positive experience at each step of their University career and these post holders are therefore responsible for providing authoritative advice, guidance and leadership around improving the student experience and ensuring that students are appropriately supported throughout their journey to graduation and beyond. They will also be required to provide the first point of contact for a broad range of issues associated with student transition, progression, and retention.

In fulfilling these functions, the post holders will have an understanding of university policy and strategy in these areas, and this will include contributing to short to medium-term College wide projects that highlight challenges with existing processes and systems, recommending solutions, and ensuring that agreed developments are implemented. Their teams will also oversee and support the implementation of School Education Plans. In addition, the post holders will be expected to provide a distinctive and visible point of contact for students so that their support can be maximised and a sense of belonging can be created, and good practice shared across the College. This is a busy and varied role, and the post holders should be a motivated self-starter, capable of working independently and committed to working collaboratively with a range of colleagues across the Schools, College and University. The ability to communicate persuasively with both academic and professional services staff is key as is the need for first class interpersonal skills in order to engage successfully with the student community.

Main Duties and Responsibilities

Professional Services Leadership

• Work in collaboration with the other Student Experience and Wellbeing Manager to ensure that both services are operating efficiently and effectively. To deputise for their counterpart in their absence.
• To take overall responsibility for the delivery of efficient and effective professional services in their main operational areas of either Student Experience or Wellbeing.
• Create a motivating environment where staff are challenged, developed, encouraged, and supported to achieve outstanding results.
• To lead and manage a team of professional services staff working closely with appropriate staff in the College Hub, other Heads of Operations in the College and staff in Corporate Services.
• To ensure that all processes and procedures in their area are fit for purpose, efficient and effective and designed to benefit the end-user and to lead a culture of continuous service improvement and review and to identify areas of good practice to share across Schools, the College and the University as appropriate;
• Guide staff through periods of change, communicating a clear and positive vision. Identify appropriate opportunities for development and change and encourage other team members to do the same

Student Experience:

• Work closely with Head of Learning and Teaching Operations (Student Support), and College Deputy Director of Education (Quality and Student Enhancement) and key School and College student experience leads to develop, oversee and monitor the implementation of the Student Experience strategy for the College of Social Sciences.
• Take a lead in ensuring that our strategy is coordinated, focuses on UG, PGT and PGR and that all activity is managed and communicated appropriately to students across College (including Careers, placements, alumni relations etc).
• Devise, manage and evaluate student enhancement activities from pre-entry to graduation, including resource, strategic and budget management. Scoping best practice from across the institution and wider sector to inform local student engagement initiatives and consulting with Professional Services and academic staff to refine student enhancement activity.
• Developing, implementing and supporting student-led and other enhancement activities. Gathering information through meaningful and on-going engagement. Leading working groups, formulating operational plans, co-ordinating School, College and University activity to inform projects and implementation.
• Representing the College on University committees and influencing staff at all levels across the College and the wider University to ensure participation in key projects.
• Devising, managing and evaluating promotional and incentive strategy for student surveys. Overseeing the Student Experience Officers delivery of the action plans and feedback to students resulting therefrom.
• Maintain oversight of the College Student Enhancement Fund to ensure School spend is appropriate and within their allocations, and to provide regular updates to the College Director of Education.
• Oversee the management of the student representation system within the College of Social Sciences, ensuring that the student voices are heard and their needs and requirements are delivered and taking action to ensure that these are dealt with in an efficient and effective manner. Work with the Guild of Students to develop a collaborative and effective relationship to support all areas of activity.

Student Wellbeing

• Work closely with Head of Learning and Teaching Operations (Student Support), Student Services and College Deputy Director of Education (Quality and Student Enhancement) and key School and College student experience leads to develop, oversee and monitor the implementation of the Student Wellbeing strategy for the College of Social Sciences.
• Take a lead in ensuring that our strategy is coordinated, focuses on UG, PGT and PGR and that all activity is managed and communicated appropriately to students across College.
• Working with School leads and wellbeing leads in other colleges to establish and monitor consistent standards of delivery across the College. Leading projects and service developments, responding to specific needs and pro-actively reviewing the service to identify continuous improvement opportunities. Ensure that robust systems and procedures are embedded within the College.
• The post-holder will provide specialist advice and guidance on a range of wellbeing activity and University Codes of Practice and Regulations, including:
  • Team meetings, case exchanges and facilitating peer-to-peer reflective practise.
  • Receive and seek to resolve complex case related issues escalated by members of the team.
  • Coordinate College operational activity for the support of students under the age of eighteen.
  • Escalating issues and cases to the College Safeguarding Lead for advice and guidance.
  • Support on any other reasonable wellbeing duties as the service develops.

Collection, analysis and reporting of data to demonstrate the impact of the service and ensure that common themes and issues can be established to improve the student experience and increase retention. Presenting outcomes as required.

College-Wide Responsibilities

• To work on a series of Cross-College projects, as directed by the Deputy Director of Operations (Education) or their nominee, which may involve evaluating service provision and recommending and implementing innovative solutions to improve service quality, efficiency and continuity and introducing long term, sustainable improvements across CoSS.
• Engage and contribute to cross College, Academic Services and Guild events and committees and ensure that best practice is implemented. Contributing to University-wide projects.
• To work effectively with senior managers across CoSS, and at times the wider University, to develop and maximise service delivery.
• Undertake any other duties that may be reasonably required by senior College staff, or their nominees, and to perform such duties consistent with the role and grade as may from time to time by assigned within the University.
• To be a champion of and promote Equality, Diversity and Inclusivity across the College and Student body to support an excellent student experience.
• Flexibility to work extended hours and at weekends to meet the needs of, but not restricted to, events such as Welcome/Registration.

Person Specification

• Educated to degree level or equivalent experience.

• Good understanding of the external environmental factors affecting the HE

• Experience of managing Professional Services staff and ability to motivate, generate enthusiasm and engender confidence.

• Excellent IT skills, including relevant experience of Microsoft office packages/case and enquiry management systems.

• An ability to work under pressure, manage competing priorities, work to tight deadlines and demonstrate personal judgement and resourcefulness.

• Knowledge and significant experience in Student Experience and Wellbeing, managing multiple complex projects and implementing and managing change

• Experience in writing policies and strategies to support organisational and/or local change

• Experience of interpreting management information for use in College level (or equivalent) initiatives and reviews.

• Critical thinker with the ability to analyse complex data and produce meaningful reports for senior management committees and boards that influence policy and facilitate decision-making.

• Experience of delivering projects to high standards with minimal supervision within a team environment

• Proven ability to create and implement innovative solutions to complex problems

• Demonstrable ability to work within a busy high-pressured environment maintaining both a high standard of work and enhanced customer care for the diverse customer base

• Experience of and interest in the development of high-quality professional services to support administration of programmes.

• Able to use initiative in proposing and developing change to existing processes

• Excellent written and oral communication skills, including the ability to communicate complex messages to non-experts and to influence and negotiate effectively with a range of stakeholders.

• Proven ability to work with senior managers, within both College and central University management and a high degree of personal accountability with the ability to influence and win support from senior staff

• Demonstrable ability to work with a diverse range of internal and external stakeholders. Excellent interpersonal skills, with the ability to communicate effectively with students, academic staff, external organisations or other members of a team.

For an informal discussion about the role please contact David Allsop, Deputy Director of Operations (Education) ( d.a.allsop@bham.ac.uk ).