Admissions Officer

Job Purpose

As an Admissions Officer you will work as part of a team with responsibility for managing admissions processes from point of application to enrolment for a range of specified programmes or applicant cohorts, in line with the admissions principles of fairness, consistency and transparency.  Admissions currently manages and supports interactions with approximately 100,000 applicants each year across UG, PGT, PGR, Collaborations and Partnerships.

You will facilitate initial application assessments, selection processes, decision making and recording all elements which relate to the contractual basis of offer, confirmation processes and CAS issuance. All processes will be carried out in line with institutional policy and all relevant legislative and compliance parameters. You will develop and build knowledge of pre and post HE academic qualification frameworks from key markets across the world, English Language qualifications and how we record and assess non-academic entry criteria, Fee Status and Immigration Status and develop your understanding of the legislative parameters that we use to define these statuses.  You will also ensure that all documentation and data is accurate and complete in relation to the issue of Confirmation of Acceptance of Studies (CAS).

Furthermore, you will operate to Service Level Agreements for the turnaround of application to offer and ensure that all processes and interactions are customer focused and delivered at within these service delivery parameters. You will work closely with Officers, Senior Officers and Managers across Admissions, External Relations and other services to ensure that processes are managed with customer focus, in line with agreed KPIs and SLAs and with optimal use of systems and resources.

Main Duties and Responsibilities 

1. Working within a team with responsibility for managing admissions processes for a particular subset of applicants or programmes from point of application to point of enrolment with high volume outputs.

2. Apply entry requirement templates and Offer Service Level Agreements to progress applications from submission, through initial assessment and selection to include the assessment of academic, English Language and non-academic qualifications

3. Make application decisions and accurate record the contractual basis of offer (qualification status, English Language status, non-academic qualification status, fee status, immigration status)

4. Manage confirmation processes including updating fields required for statutory and internal reporting and the issue of CAS.

5. Support the Enquiry Team with appropriate detail and data to ensure that applicant enquiries are responded to in a timely fashion using automation where appropriate.

6. Support the Senior Admissions Officer to report against key performance indicators and to ensure that all internal stakeholders are well-informed regarding Admissions progress and future Admissions developments.

7. Ensure that activities are carried out in line with key performance indicators and service level agreements for decision turnarounds for uncapped programmes and applicant cohorts.

8. Develop and build specialist Admissions expertise in relation to your area of responsibility: market-specific, School/programme-specific, applicant cohort-specific, qualification-specific

9. Membership of the Fee Status panel with a remit for reviewing and making decisions on Fee Status appeals

10. Support technical and process based development tasks or projects as assigned by the Senior Admissions Officer

11. Support specific projects or initiative relating to the development of the Admissions process as assigned by the Senior Admissions Officer

12. Develop and support relationships with key internal stakeholders in relevant Schools and Colleges.  Ensure that all internal stakeholders are well-informed regarding Admissions progress and future Admissions developments.

13. Responsibility for additional specific activities or projects as requested by the Heads of Admissions, including those with enquirer and applicant engagement focus eg Open Days or Clearing

Knowledge, Qualifications, Skills and Experience

Knowledge/Qualifications

Essential:

A1 Ability to demonstrate the competencies required to undertake the duties associated with this level of post having acquired the necessary knowledge and skills in a similar role; OR Scottish Credit and Qualification Framework level 7 (Advanced Higher, SVQ 3, HNC or equivalent) , and experience of personal development in a similar role.

Desirable:

B1 Knowledge of the HE sector and a detailed understanding of the legislative and compliance parameters that govern HE Admissions.

B2 Knowledge of pre-HE and HE qualification frameworks in key recruitment markets: UK, EU, China, South Asia, South East Asia, North America

B3 Knowledge of legislation and compliance parameters that govern Admissions practice and policy

Skills

Essential:

C1 Ability to work as part of a team and independently on own initiative

C2 Effective planning, organising and prioritising with the ability to offer a flexible approach to managing a busy workload and supporting priorities from across Admissions

C3 Ability to use knowledge bases and entry requirement templates as a framework for making decisions on applications which cover a very broad range of applicants.

C4 Ability to build and develop knowledge of qualification frameworks through available knowledge bases and tools.

C5 Ability to support meeting ambitious KPI targets and turnaround times

C6 Excellent IT skills: Outlook, Excel, Word, Access and bespoke databases, with the ability to use University management information systems, Student Records and Admissions – BI Query, Weblink and MyCampus.

C7 Ability to communicate clearly orally and in writing to ensure effective reporting and customer service. Ability to develop specialist Admissions knowledge and expertise on a particular market, set of programmes, mode of selection or qualification subset

C8 Ability to adapt to an ever-changing internal and external Admissions landscape

C9 Well-developed analytical and problem-solving capability with the initiative and judgement to resolve problems independently

C10 Strong interpersonal and communication skills and the ability to deal with complaints and varied data requests

C11 Ability to apply a logical and methodical approach to solving problems encountered throughout the Admissions cycle and to communicate solutions effectively to all key stakeholders

Experience

Essential:

E1 Experience of working and excelling in a high volume setting with tight deadlines

Desirable:

F1 Experience of working in a Higher Education Setting

F2 Experience of Admissions Decision Making in a Higher Education Setting

Terms and Conditions

Salary will be Grade 5, £25,138 - £29,605 per annum.

This post is full time (35 hours per week) and open ended (permanent).

As part of Team UofG you will be a member of a world changing, inclusive community, which values ambition, excellence, integrity and curiosity.

As a valued member of our team, you can expect:

1 A warm welcoming and engaging organisational culture, where your talents are developed and nurtured, and success is celebrated and shared.

2 An excellent employment package with generous terms and conditions including 41 days of leave for full time staff, pension - pensions handbook https://www.gla.ac.uk/myglasgow/payandpensions/pensions/, benefits and discount packages.

3 A flexible approach to working.

4 A commitment to support your health and wellbeing, including a free 6-month UofG Sport membership for all new staff joining the University  https://www.gla.ac.uk/myglasgow/staff/healthwellbeing/.

We believe that we can only reach our full potential through the talents of all. Equality, diversity and inclusion are at the heart of our values. Applications are particularly welcome from across our communities and in particular people from the Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) community, and other protected characteristics who are under-represented within the University. Read more on how the University promotes and embeds all aspects of equality and diversity within our community https://www.gla.ac.uk/myglasgow/humanresources/equalitydiversity/.

We endorse the principles of Athena Swan https://www.gla.ac.uk/myglasgow/humanresources/equalitydiversity/athenaswan/ and hold bronze, silver and gold awards across the University.

We are investing in our organisation, and we will invest in you too. Please visit our website https://www.gla.ac.uk/explore/jobs/ for more information.