Senior Student Support Manager

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About Us

The Faculty of Arts and Humanities is seeking to appoint a Senior Student Support Manager to support the development and growth of the faculty student support team. This newly established role demonstrates our commitment to student support within the faculty, and in supporting our personal and senior tutor network.

The role will be based within the faculty education team and will oversee all elements of student support, working closely with the Associate Director, Education; the faculty senior tutor, and the faculty education leads to deliver a transformative student experience.

You should apply for this role if you have leadership experience in the support space, excellent negotiation skills, and a passion for working with students.

We operate a hybrid working policy, colleagues working in student facing roles are expected to be flexible in their work with typically 2 days in the office and a third day as required during busy periods.

About The Role

This is an exciting opportunity to lead and develop the student support provision for taught students within the faculty of Arts and Humanities. The Senior Student Support Manager will work closely with a range of stakeholders to ensure support services and processes within the faculty are enabled by efficient reliable systems that effectively meet the needs of students, academic colleagues, and other stakeholders. They will be responsible for driving forward a continued culture of support and inclusion within the faculty.

This is a fast-paced role, and the successful candidate will need to confidently and efficiently balance their day-to-day work with a complex student case load, managing the team, and liaising with a range of central services.

The role holder will work with closely with a range of stakeholders to deliver an exceptional Student Support service that not only supports our students within the faculty, but also ensures that staff, both academic and professional services, are well trained and confident to signpost students appropriately.

The role holder will be responsible for the existing student support team, with a view to strategically growing this team as permitted. They will provide onboarding and robust training for new team members, enabling colleagues within the support team, and wider education team to be informed on sector best practice, up to date with relevant legislation and to support succession planning.

A key element of this role will be liaison with a range of stakeholders both within the faculty, with other faculty colleagues, and with a wide range of support teams within the wider college. The successful candidate will have strong negotiation and excellent communication skills and be able to confidently communicate the needs of the faculty and our student cohort.

This post will report to the Associate Director, Education and will be embedded in the faculty education team. This team's remit covers programmes administration, student experience, quality assurance and technology enhanced learning, and the role holder will ensure support is at the fore of the work all these teams undertake. The Senior Student Support Manager will also work closely with the faculty senior tutor and faculty network of departmental senior and personal tutors to ensure colleagues across the faculty have the tools to signpost students confidently and ensure student receive the best support available for the individual needs.

You will act as the Designated Safeguarding Officer for the faculty, and as the lead Disability Liaison.

This is a full time post (35 Hours per week), 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. Experience with supporting students (or other individuals) across a wide range of situations including when in crisis, from different backgrounds and demonstrating empathy, sensitivity, and discretion.
2. Understanding of the issues facing the HE sector in relation to student support.
3. Ability to analyse information, policies, and procedures in order to take appropriate action or recommend improvements to the service.
4. Experience of leading and managing teams, with a pro-active and development focused approach.
5. Demonstrable negotiating / influencing skills and an ability to work with all levels of stakeholders.
6. Ability to balance competing demands and manage expectations, both for your own workload and that of a team, bearing in mind the needs of our stakeholders
7. Ability to engage in collaborative working across King's professional services, other faculties, academic and student communities, with a meaningful and visible commitment to Diversity & Inclusion policies and practices.
8. Commitment to delivering a transformational student experience

Desirable criteria

1. Experience of working with another HE provider
2. Ability to drive both structural and cultural change in a student experience or support context.
3. Adept at maintaining progress on multiple agendas and projects simultaneously.
4. Awareness of when to signpost students to appropriate support services, including those relating to wellbeing or academic studies
5. A good understanding of the breadth of the faculty

Downloading a copy of our Job Description

Full details of the role and the skills, knowledge and experience required can be found in the Job Description document, provided at the bottom of the next page after you click "Apply Now". This document will provide information of what criteria will be assessed at each stage of the recruitment process.

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 will review your application, please take a look at our ' How we Recruit ' pages.

Interviews are due to be held w/c 14th October.

We are able to offer sponsorship for candidates who do not currently possess the right to work in the UK.