Awards Strategy and Operations Officer

Overview
At the heart of Cambridge’s global academic community is the Cambridge Trust, a charity driven by a simple but powerful mission – to open doors to the University of Cambridge for talented students from across the world, whatever their circumstances.

By partnering with organisations worldwide, the Trust offers the largest number of scholarships to international students at Cambridge. Every year we help around 400 applicants pursue their dreams, awarding scholarships that support study in any subject, at any of the University’s 31 Colleges.

In our 40-year history we have transformed over 22,000 lives from 150 countries, providing both full- and part-scholarships that honour academic excellence and make education accessible to those facing financial or other access barriers.

By joining our team, you will have the opportunity to help unlock human potential and enable the brightest minds to thrive at one of the world’s greatest universities.

Context For This Role

The Trust is in an exciting period of defining, developing and communicating its strategy for the next 5+ years, building on the outputs of the Trust’s Strategic Review in 2024.

The Trust is shaping its strategy in relation to the following broad dimensions:

• delivering a diverse yet structured portfolio of award programmes leveraging existing partnerships and cultivating new.
• understanding and shaping the Trust’s niche role in contributing to a positive scholar experience from the point of application for funding to the point of completion of studies and graduation.
• capturing, measuring and communicating the Trust’s impact at the level of individuals, the University and global society.
• designing and delivering creative reporting dashboards to communicate effectively the scale and range of the Trust’s awarding activity.
• developing a multi-year business plan to underpin delivery of the Trust’s strategic ambitions for current and future beneficiaries.

This role, offered on a fixed-term basis initially, would suit a skilled generalist and enthusiastic individual with a strong interest in the higher education and charity sectors. The role provides a great opportunity to contribute at both strategic and operational levels, supporting the Trust as it navigates a period of transition and change. The role holder can expect to develop new skills and gain valuable experience in this impact-focussed organisation with a broad and global reach.

Key Responsibilities

Reporting to the Director (Awards) and working especially closely with the Awards Team, the role holder can expect to take on a broad range of responsibilities including:

Strategic work

• Researching the size and shape of scholarship programmes at higher education institutions and
  other scholarship providers, nationally and internationally, and identifying potential
  opportunities for the Trust to address underserved communities.
• Contributing to the Director’s (Awards) work to develop or enhance new or existing scholarship
  programmes, and to define and shape the Trust’s portfolio of scholarships along thematic lines.
• Researching and drafting examples of guidelines such as a Code of Practice for Scholarship
  Providers at Cambridge or formal agreements such as scholarship service level agreements as
  used in other organisations. Developing template agreement options working with the Awards
  management team.
• Participating in Trust-wide project work. Examples might include:
• developing and enhancing the Trust’s database and improving data quality.
• reorganising the Trust’s digital file management arrangements.
• identifying opportunities for greater automation in pre- and post-award activities.
• liaising with stakeholders and identifying, developing and updating relevant quantifiable
  and qualitative metrics to communicate the Trust’s work to key stakeholder
  communities.

Operational work

• Contributing to business-as-usual activity across pre- and post-award tasks including:
• long- and short-listing for specific scholarship programmes in accordance with current
  memoranda of understanding and Trust selection and awarding principles and policies.
• preparing award offer letters.
• supporting matters relating to scholar payment processes.
• responding to applicant and scholar queries including researching the background to
  requests for additional funding and assessing the cost implications of policy changes.
• helping with annual operational tasks such as preparing College lists, University
  Composition Fees invoices, and updates to the University’s funding management portal
  and the Cambridge Trust website.

Skills and experience

Essential

• Self-starter with ability to complete multiple tasks in an organised way, within time constraints and with minimal supervision.
• Creative thinker with excellent problem-solving skills and consultative approach to developing proposals.
• Demonstrates a high attention to detail.
• Collaborative team player with willingness to share knowledge and expertise, and respond positively to constructive feedback.
• Excellent communication skills, confident in articulating complex information concisely and clearly without recourse to jargon.
• Resilient, adaptable and comfortable working under pressure.
• Interest in education and research, and a strong commitment to the mission and values of the Cambridge Trust.
• Politically and culturally sensitive.
• Proficiency in Microsoft Office applications.

Desirable

• Competent using data visualisation and analytics tools such as Power BI.
• Understanding of and interest in databases.
• Experience in project administration.

Behavioural Attributes associated with this role

• Communication: Communicates effectively and appropriately with a variety of stakeholders including
  external partners, teams, colleagues and contacts.
• Relationship Building: Maintains strong working relationships. Works effectively within a team or work
  group as appropriate.
• Valuing Diversity: Considers and respects the ideas, circumstances and feelings of others. Treats
  everyone with fairness and respect, adhering to the principles of diversity and inclusion.
• Achieving Results: Identifies and manages important issues and problems effectively. Provides support
  for and contributes to the performance of the institution. Manages own workload and, where applicable,
  the workload of others.
• Strategic Focus: Takes a strategic view and creates long-term plans for their area of responsibility in
  alignment with the Trust’s direction. Promotes a shared vision for the Trust.
• People development: Promotes and facilitates the development of others.
• Negotiating and influencing: Persuades and influences colleagues through involvement and consultation.
• Innovation and Change: Develops and promotes new ways of working to improve performance within
  team and institution.

Other Things You Need to Know

• The funds for this role are available for 2 years, in the first instance.
• We welcome applications from all suitably qualified candidates. However, as we are unable to sponsor visas, applicants must already have the right to work in the UK.
• We aim to have the team working in our office in central Cambridge most of the time, but will always consider the best way of working to achieve what is needed for both the Trust and the individual.
• Occasional out-of-hours work will be required such as attending the Welcome Event for new scholars.

About The Cambridge Trust

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