Student Recruitment Administrator - School of Social Policy - 44203 - Band 500

Position Details

College of Social Sciences

Location: University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham UK

Starting salary is normally in the range £23,699 to £25,458. With potential progression once in post to £29,471 a year.

Band 500

Full Time

Permanent

Closing date – 8 August 2021

Our offer to you  
 
People are at the heart of what we are and do. 
 
The University of Birmingham is proud to have been a part of the City of Birmingham and the wider region for over 100 years, and we are equally proud to be recognised as a leading global university.  We want to attract talented people from across the city and beyond, support them to succeed, and celebrate their success. 
 
We are committed to helping the people who work here to develop through our sector-leading Birmingham Professional programme which provides all professional services staff with development opportunities and the encouragement to reach their full potential.  With almost 5,000 professional services jobs in a wide-range of functions in Edgbaston and in our campus in Dubai, there are plenty of opportunities for you to be able to develop your career at the University. 
 
We believe there is no such thing as a typical member of staff and that diversity is a source of strength that underpins the exchange of ideas, innovation, and debate.  We warmly welcome people from all backgrounds and are committed to fostering an inclusive environment where diversity is at the heart of who and what we are, and how we work. 
 
Supporting our people to achieve a healthy work/life balance is important both to our employees and to the success of the University and, depending on the role, we offer a variety of flexible working arrangements.  We therefore welcome discussions on all forms of flexible working.  In addition, you will receive a generous package of benefits including 40 days paid holiday a year, one paid day a year for volunteering, occupational sick pay, and a pension scheme. We also have three high quality subsidised day nurseries. 
 
The University is situated in leafy Edgbaston and there are excellent transport links to our beautiful campus, including main bus routes and a train station on site.  On campus we have a state-of-the-art sports centre with pool, shops, places to eat and drink, our own art gallery, museum and botanical gardens.  
 
Find out more about the benefits of working for the University of Birmingham  

Job context

The post holder will be working within a College Marketing and Communications Team, with specific designation within the School of Social Policy.  The School mission ‘to understand the world – and also to change it’. This means carrying out high quality and relevant research, and using this as a starting point for making a practical difference in the real world through our teaching, our professional training, our policy advice and our work with local communities, the public and the media.

Job Summary

The post holder will be responsible for the administration of student recruitment activities for a range of programmes for either a specific area, or more widely across the University. In order to flexibly use resource you may be offered the opportunity to work elsewhere in the department or across the University. The post-holder will need a sound understanding of admissions requirements for both Undergraduate and Master’s programmes. The post holder will need to be able to work independently, to prioritise and to plan their own workload as well as work with other Professional Services colleagues. A customer focus is essential, since the post holder will be required to work closely with Professional Service, Academic and Senior Managers to develop and implement changes to procedures where necessary. The post-holder will be expected to use a great deal of tact, discretion and patience in dealing with confidential matters and will need to use their own judgement in dealing with the many and varied enquiries received by applicants.

Main duties

Admissions

•    Proactively plan for and implement the admissions cycle in coordination with Heads of Admissions and departmental admissions leads 

•    Support the identification, development and implementation of supplementary and innovative recruitment strategies as appropriate to launch new programmes or to target specific markets and programmes. 

•    Act as an initial point of contact for prospective students, agents, collaborative partners, and admissions tutors, providing advice and guidance on a range of complex issues and devising and implementing an appropriate induction programme, to ensure that staff involved in student recruitment and admissions are provided with an appropriate level of support and guidance for dealing with day to day queries. 

•    Acquire and maintain an up-to-date knowledge of a portfolio of courses in order to provide appropriate advice and answer questions from prospective students, in addition to developing an awareness of competitor programmes in order to contribute to periodic reviews of programmes. 

•    Contribute to the development, delivery and review of an annual programme of student recruitment and admissions related activity and events, including: ensuring appropriate representation at recruitment events e.g. Open Days, Applicant Visit Days, recruitment fairs both in the UK and Overseas; ensuring systems are in place to collect the details of prospective applicants and to provide appropriate follow up information; organising and setting up relevant publicity information at each event 

•    Process all applications in accordance with set procedures through the various admissions stages; for example, initial application, offer holder visit day/interview day, offer and engagement. 

•    Oversee/ facilitate processing of conditional aspects of offers, including appropriate references, suitability and self-declaration forms, liaising with and escalating to the Senior Tutor where appropriate.

•    Organise suitability panels, which involves coordination with external bodies and individuals.  Ensure confidentiality and GDPR regulations are adhered to at all times. 

•    Act as a contact for the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) Team, following up on previous declarations and chasing outstanding DBS checks to ensure all students are compliant.

•    Coordinate, manage and support the applicant, interview and admissions days. 

•    Take a leading role in planning and facilitating Offer Holder Visit Days and Assessment Days.  Collaborate with academic colleagues to ensure an excellent experience for applicants at all stages of engagement. 

•    Take responsibility for the recruitment, selection and training of student ambassadors, ensuring all are suitably trained and remunerated in liaison with External Relations departments.

•    Develop and manage a range of standard student communications in respect of the admissions work 
•    Develop student communications in conjunction with wider Admissions and Marketing teams to encourage an increase in student conversions.

•    Analyse administrative processes and make recommendations to academic admissions leads regarding changes to improve processes and systems.

•    Attend any meetings in respect of the admissions cycle feeding back information to the Learning and Teaching Management Teams and academic leads.  Arrange relevant recruitment and marketing meetings as required.

•    Develop a working knowledge of admissions- related platforms such as SITS, BIRMS and UCAS and train academic admissions leads in their utilisation.

•    Conduct relevant partner Bursary rankings and allocation.  Provide advice and guidance on bursary-related queries to applicants, students, professional services and academic members of staff.

•    Support the administration of scholarship awards, including: developing the case for targeted scholarships, establishing criteria, working with colleagues to select recipients and ensuring appropriate documentation is maintained

Student Records

•    Take full responsibility for ensuring the quality and accuracy of applicant data and maintain accurate and up to date applicant files

•    Develop systems and processes for the effective monitoring of each application to allow for reporting in respect of targets.

•    Provide regular statistical updates to admissions tutors for reporting to subject group meetings.    

•    Utilise Tableau to provide accurate reports on admissions.

General Administration and Duties

•    Manage data in compliance with GDPR, archiving information as necessary.

•    Collectively with colleagues engaged in recruitment and admissions to, monitor and review recruitment and conversion data and produce management information and contextual commentary, highlighting any areas of opportunity or concern to inform the development of ongoing recruitment and conversion plans. 

•    Circulate updates from Central Admissions Unit and other departments and information to staff throughout the admissions cycle as required. 

•    Work closely with marketing colleagues as well as with academic staff in developing marketing materials and promoting the programmes, drawing on experience to inform and advise. Review marketing materials as required. Ensure external marketing is up to date by providing advice and information to digital teams to market and promote advertising for programmes through the media, internet and other internal and external sources e.g. Open Days.

•    As required provide advice and information on admissions to identified Programme Director(s) in the production of Annual Module and Programme reviews.

•    To service, attend, minute and follow up action on matters in relation to identified committees’ relevant to the admissions activity.

•    To assist in the creation and maintenance of comprehensive documented procedures relating to the administration of admissions within determined areas of the University.

•    To diagnose and resolve problems and suggest solutions in all admissions matters, whilst having regard to their impact outside this area.

•    Provide cover for the External Relations Administrator in their absence.

•    May be responsible for managing a small team, its immediate work, health and safety etc.

•    Any other duties consistent with the nature of the post.
 

Required Knowledge, Skills, Qualifications, Experience 

'Good educational standard equivalent to A-Level, including evidence of strong literacy and numeracy as evidenced by GCSE passes at grade A* - C (or equiv.) in English and Maths. 

Significant administrative work experience in a similar demanding and/or complex administrative role preferably in Higher Education.

Previous experience of working with students/applicants

Ability to make recommendations/proposals and implement them to streamline processes and procedures

Excellent interpersonal and written and verbal communication skills

Ability to work independently and on own initiative with problem solving skills and as part of a team

Ability to deal courteously, diplomatically and confidentially with a wide range of people

Ability to organise, prioritise and absorb detailed information accurately and quickly whilst working to tight deadlines.

Ability to adapt to change and develop services to meet changing needs.

Excellent Microsoft Office skills, including spread sheets and databases

Ability to develop a working knowledge of IT systems quickly and share knowledge through training

Flexible and pro-active approach

Understanding of the principles and implementation of the Data Protection and Freedom of Information Acts

Dimensions

You will not be required to line manage anyone in this role or manage a budget.  

Planning and organising 

You will be required to manage and prioritise a varied workload to deliver within required time frames.

Problem solving and decision making 

You will be working under the direction of a senior manager, but with some autonomy to deliver the outputs required.  You will be working within the framework of existing policies, processes and procedures for the University and the College.  You will take day to day decisions on answering queries and will be expected to refer queries on as appropriate.

Internal and external relationships

This role will be liaising with internal colleagues and stakeholders, and possibly external stakeholders as well with an expectation on maintaining good working relationships with all.

For informal inquiries please contact 

The University is committed to safeguarding and we promote safe recruitment practice, therefore all associated pre-employment checks will be undertaken before any appointment is confirmed.

Due to the nature of the work undertaken in this role all successful applicants will be subject to a satisfactory Occupational Health and/or DBS clearance prior to appointment.
 

Valuing excellence, sustaining investment
We value diversity at The University of Birmingham and welcome applications from all sections of the community’