Admissions Manager

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About Us

The King's community is dedicated to the service of society. King's Strategic Vision 2029 sets out our vision for the future, shaped around five priority areas: educate to inspire and improve; research to inform and innovate; serve to shape and transform; a civic university at the heart of London; and an international community that services the world. Our ambitious Education Strategy sets out the actions that we must take to transform how we teach, how and where our students learn and how we support them during their time with us.

The King's Admissions Office is responsible for the Undergraduate and Postgraduate admissions services at King's College London. The Admissions Office receives over 120,000 applications each year, striving to process applications efficiently and providing a high level of customer service whether this is responding to emails or messages, from application to enrolment.

We are part of the Students & Education Directorate, a collection of wide-ranging professional services in place to support King's students and their education. As a directorate we manage the student lifecycle from application to graduation and beyond, to ensure a coherent and seamless student experience and effective administrative processes, working closely with King's faculties to do so.

About the Role

We have one position available in our Postgraduate Admissions team and one position available in our Undergraduate Admissions team.

As one of the Admissions Managers within the King's Admissions Office, the post-holder will have overall responsibility for an area of admissions including: managing an admissions team leading on a number of faculties, developing best practice and ensuring the provision of a high-quality service that supports the University's strategic objectives.

This is an exciting opportunity for candidates looking to work in support of our applicants, and who wish to utilise their skills and expertise in management and customer service. This is an opportunity to grow your skills in strategic planning and making data-driven decisions.

We encourage applications from candidates who have experience from both within and outside of the Higher Education sector where they can demonstrate the skills needed to succeed in this role.

Key Responsibilities

• Managing and directing teams within admissions to deliver an effective, timely and proactive service throughout the admissions cycle
• Reviewing and monitoring progress of applications/offers against agreed enrolment targets and taking appropriate action by making data-led decisions
• Developing and fostering excellent working relationships with a wide range of internal and external stakeholders (both professional services and academic colleagues) to work collaboratively and ensure agreed service standards are met
• Contributing to the review and development of admissions policies and processes, making recommendations, and ensuring compliance with both internal and external regulations and deadlines
• Leading on training and performance management of staff including setting clear priorities and objectives for the team and recruitment of staff.
• Delivering a responsive and high-quality service in a customer-facing environment with the ability to deal with challenges that may arise, including investigating and resolving appeals and complaints

The above list of responsibilities may not be exhaustive, and the post holder will be required to undertake such tasks and responsibilities as may reasonably be expected within the scope and grading of the post.

About You

Essential criteria

1. Relevant work experience and/or education: we think a wide range of different work and educational experiences could support you to be successful in this role. Relevant work experience might include work in a university admissions team, or in a customer service manager role. Relevant educational experiences might include higher education in a related discipline, professional qualifications, or other training.
2. Ability to interpret quantitative and qualitative information and data, identify trends to support decision making or for inclusion in reports, which are accessible to the intended audience.
3. Excellent leadership and interpersonal skills, with the ability to communicate and distribute information clearly.
4. Experience of successfully managing staff, preferably within a higher education context, including performance management and developmental needs against set objectives and policies.
5. Being proactive in planning and prioritising multiple, competing projects and processes, with the ability to manage own workload and that of the team in a fast-changing environment to meet challenging and changing deadlines.
6. Excellent organisational and time management skills.
7. Demonstrating high professional standards, maintaining confidentiality and acting with integrity.
8. Commitment to delivering a quality customer-focused experience to applicants by identifying opportunities for operational improvements and leading on the delivery of these improvements.
9. Experience of successful stakeholder management, working with a broad range of stakeholders in a professional manner and maintaining productive professional relationships.
10. Ability to manage change and respond positively to new challenges.

Desirable criteria

1. Experience of working within UK Admissions, with a proven track record of success.
2. Understanding and implementing UK admissions policy and procedures.

Further Information

Please submit a personal statement when applying for this vacancy, clearly setting out how you meet the essential criteria, as this is how we shortlist applications. Learn more about how we recruit, including tips on writing your application and supporting statement on our website: https://jobs.kcl.ac.uk/gb/en/applying

Interviews will be held using Microsoft Teams and will consist of competency-based questions linked closely to the essential and desirable criteria mentioned here.

Although we have made improvements over the last number of years, our team is still under-represented in terms of staff from global majority ethnicities, LGBTQ+ identities, and from people with disabilities. We encourage applications from all backgrounds, communities and industries, and are committed to employing a team that has diverse skills, experiences and abilities.