Purpose of Role
The role-holder will be responsible for leading the organisation and delivery of key University off campus student support operational processes, primarily but not exclusively for Partnership students, leading areas of business process improvement, as well as having direct administrative responsibilities for complex business critical tasks. The role-holder may be assigned to work directly for the Senior Manager, Off Campus Students Manager and Head of Off Campus Students as a change leader or to co-ordinate a significant cross division task. The role holder will have a dotted line to the Academic Operations Manager or their designated team member, to coordinate Boards of Examiners for Partnership students and work within an agreed Academic Operations framework of systems and processes.
The role-holder will not have direct line management responsibility. However, the Head of Off Campus Students will review this as Partnership activities grow and evolve; but will be expected to co-ordinate staff resources to ensure that work is undertaken; this will involve allocating work activity to themselves and any assigned team members or casual staff to ensure that the Off Campus Students team effectively support the various stages of the student and academic lifecycle.
As with all members of RAS, the role-holder will also be expected to support other key functions of the directorate, such as supporting graduations, or helping to gather quality-related data and information.
Summary of Key Duties and Responsibilities (General):
1. Support the Off Campus Division team leadership with developing the strategy of the Division.
2. Each Semester, work with the Off Campus Students Leadership and the other Off Campus Students Division Administrators to agree which Administrator will lead each of the following tasks, and the resources that will be needed: Enrolment and Registration Support Online enquiry management Mitigating Circumstances support for off campus students Results processing Boards of Examiners for academic partnership programmes Personal Tutor allocation Complaints handling Post -appeal and post-discipline case handling Complex issue resolution Division SharePoint administration
3. For each assigned task the role-holder will: Plan the task, including milestones, human resources, deadlines, training, and documentation. Co-ordinate the task, ensuring: effective utilisation of any assigned team members including the role-holder, that milestones are reached, and deadlines are met. Liaise with all Schools, professional services, casual workers and external companies to ensure all stakeholders are aware of deadlines and processes. Address any concerns with Schools directly, identifying solutions and ensuring service provision adheres to internal and external regulations and agreements. Work with the Off Campus Students Leadership, Academic Operations Management and the other Administrators to evaluate processes and identify areas of business improvement. Lead the implementation of business improvements – this may include commissioning Information Services or external suppliers to deliver the changes.
4. Assist with recruitment to the Off Campus Students team.
5. Undertake other tasks related to Off Campus Students as required by their line Manager, the Off Campus Students Senior Manager or the Head of Off Campus Students.
6. Regularly engage with partners to build and maintain strong relationships across all levels.
Summary of Key Duties and Responsibilities (Specific):
For online and partnership students:
7. Enrolment and Registration Support: Co-ordinate Off Campus Students colleagues assigned to support Enrolment and Registration for off campus students, ensuring timely and effective issue resolution.
8. Online and off-campus student enquiry management: Co-ordinate Off Campus Students colleagues assigned to support academics and students, ensuring timely and effective enquiry management and issue resolution.
9. Boards of Examiners for academic partnership programmes: Co-ordinate the scheduling and clerking of relevant Boards of Examiners. Ensure the allocation of clerks for relevant campuses with partnerships, and that key tasks are completed such as paperwork preparation, invitations sent and post board processing.
10. Mitigating Circumstances support: ensure timely, consistent and student-centred triage of MC applications for the whole University. Work with the Mitigating Circumstances Administrator to ensure that MC Board decisions are properly communicated to Boards of Examiners.
11. Marks and Results processing: Ensure the timely processing of marks and grades from marking completion until publication.
12. Complaints handling: Investigate and report on complaints ensuring that a detailed understanding of causes is achieved and a satisfactory response to the complainant is composed.
13. Post -appeal and post-discipline case handling: Ensuring the timely completion of post-appeal or post-discipline updates to student records.
14. Complex issue resolution: Investigate and resolve complex student issues across multiple information systems and modes and locations of study.
15. Division SharePoint administration: Ensure that the division’s SharePoint site is useful, relevant, up-to-date and accessible.
Education, Qualifications & Experience:
These are the criteria on which the short-listing and recruitment selection will be based.
Essential
16. Educated to at least SCQF level 6-7 or similar or equivalent practical experience in the workplace
17. Experience of working within a similar environment as outlined above
18. Excellent attention to detail with the ability to manage multiple priorities at the same time.
19. Competent in the use of relevant IT packages
20. Proven relevant experience working in higher education within a service provision role which will have been acquired over a number of years
21. Analytical problem-solving skills
22. Well-developed interpersonal skills
23. Demonstrable excellent customer service
24. Demonstrable ability to work quickly, flexibly and accurately in a dynamic, changing and pressured environment
25. Demonstrable professional and proactive approach
Desirable
26. Experience in configuring systems to meet business needs
27. Experience of working with suppliers to identify issues or enhancements
28. Experience one or more of the following systems: Banner Student, Top Desk email management system, Banner Workflow, SharePoint, Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition (OBIEE, aka “OBI”), Collabco myDay portal configuration.
29. Experience of identifying or delivering minor enhancements to business processes
Organisation Name: Registry and Academic Support: Off Campus Students Division
About our School/Directorate and Team:
The Global Registry and Academic Support Directorate supports our students and staff colleagues across the full student lifecycle from enrolment to graduation. The Directorate has responsibility as the definitive record-keeper of all student information and programme and course details, and leading services that help students settle and stay at the University with professional help and advice, through a range of wellbeing services.
It supports academic and professional services staff across the University in a number of areas, including: academic, institutional and student related Regulations and Policies and global, national and institutional quality matters. It delivers these services through four Divisions, each managed by a Global Head, and two Heads of Campus Registry:
30. Student Life
31. Off Campus Students
32. Academic Operations
33. Academic Quality
34. Head of Registry – Dubai Campus
35. Head of Registry – Malaysia Campus
The Off Campus Students Division consists of two teams supporting Heriot-Watt Online students and students studying off campus via academic partnerships; the Off Campus Students team (STEM) and the Off Campus Students team (non-STEM). The work of the Off Campus Students Administrator will be related to the Off Campus Students support teams.
The Off Campus Students Division is responsible for supporting all aspects of the off-campus student journey from enrolment to graduation by providing a single structure to support and enhance the student experience of those studying online programmes or studying off campus via dedicated University approved partnerships globally.