Associate Director (Academic Quality Assurance)

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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.

Academic Quality is responsible for providing specialist support and guidance to the University on all aspects of academic quality assurance, enhancement and governance. The Division ensures the University's academic regulations and policies for the provision of academic processes, quality and governance activity, are designed, and upheld, to ensure compliance with external academic regulatory, quality and legal obligations as determined by OfS, PSRBs and others.

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

The Associate Director (Academic Quality Assurance) will lead the key strategic area of assuring the quality of the University's provision across its faculties. Providing a pivotal role in working with colleagues in the Students & Education Directorate and those based in faculties.

This role will spearhead efforts to uphold and enhance the quality, integrity, and effectiveness of our academic provision. Working closely with colleagues the Academic Quality Division and Quality Managers based in the University's faculties to provide support and resources for the development of the quality assurance framework, including training for those involved in these activities. They will use an evidence-based approach to quality assurance to enable the University to meet its external commitments and deliver a consistent student experience.

We are looking for an individual who shares our aspirations and our values, who is comfortable working strategically and operationally, who understands how to deliver support and services to students and other end-users, and who is equipped to work in a high volume, complex and fast-paced environment.

Associate Directors have operational responsibility for a defined portfolio of education and student professional services, as:

• a divisional lead within the Students and Education Directorate;
• the professional services education and students lead within an academic faculty; or
• the lead of defined function-wide transformation initiatives.

The Associate Directors work within and across teams and functions, engaging with a wide-range of colleagues across King's to drive a positive and transformative impact on the student experience. This includes ensuring:

• that services are delivered efficiently and consistently across King's;
• the mutual role of service users and those delivering services are understood so that the services deliver value and impact;
• the key measures of service effectiveness reflect the reality on the ground;
• the mutual dependencies of services across and within functions are managed to embed a culture of service, transparency and continuous improvement across King's.

Associate Directors will have an excellent understanding of the priorities, cultures, and pressures of a research-led university, and of academic processes and the structure of the academic year.

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.

This is a full time, and you will be offered an indefinite contract.

About You

To be successful in this role, we are looking for candidates to have the following skills and experience:

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 academic quality, or related registry service. Relevant educational experiences might include higher education in a related discipline, professional qualifications or other training
2. Experience of professional services leadership with at least three years' experience in academic quality assurance or related roles within higher education
3. Leading the development of policies and processes which have supported continuous improvement and reduced complexity
4. Exceptional communication and interpersonal skills, with the ability to engage and influence stakeholders at all levels
5. Ability to make decisions and work independently, with the ability to prioritise activity in accordance with institutional priorities
6. Understanding of current and future developments in higher education, particularly in respect to policy, regulation, and governance and the impact on academic quality and standards
7. Understanding of the use of metrics to inform a risk-based approach to compliance, quality and standards
8. Demonstrable commitment to Equality, Diversity and Inclusion

Desirable criteria

1. Engagement with sector bodies or communities of practice (e.g. QSN, AUA, ARC) and a commitment to developing external networks for institutional advantage
2. Membership of the Association of University Administrators

Full details of the role and the skills and experience required can be found in the attached job description which is provided on the next page.

Further information

We pride ourselves on being inclusive and welcoming. We embrace diversity and want everyone to feel that they belong and are connected to others in our community.

We are committed to working with our staff and unions on these and other issues, to continue to support our people and to develop a diverse and inclusive culture at King's.

We ask all candidates to submit a copy of their CV, and a supporting statement, detailing how they meet the essential criteria listed in the advert. If we receive a strong field of candidates, we may use the desirable criteria to choose our final shortlist, so please include your evidence against these where possible.

To find out how our managers review your application, please take a look at our ' How we Recruit ' pages.