Head of Academic Support

Regent College London provides a range of support to students, including pastoral and academic support. Cohorts of students are allocated a named and dedicated Student Success Officer, Academic Support Officer (ASO) or Personal Academic Tutor (PAT), Student Finance Officer, and a Registry contact. This group of staff monitors student progress and proactively offers a range of support.

The successful candidate will lead the training, development, and quality monitoring of academic support for teaching staff who are allocated a cohort of students. The successful candidate will work closely with other student services to ensure a consistent and high-quality student experience.

• Overseeing and coordinating the operation and continuous improvement of student academic support and development, as well as acting as a point of reference, advice, and guidance for all ASOs/PATs.
• Providing comprehensive training, ongoing professional development, and support for ASOs/PATs to ensure they fulfil their role effectively.
• Designing and delivering an induction programme for new ASOs/PATs, ensuring they understand their responsibilities and the support framework.
• Organising regular refresher training and best-practice sharing sessions for all ASOs/PATs.
• Ensuring that students understand the importance of engaging with academic support services and are encouraged to seek support proactively.
• Ensuring that programme handbooks and guidance documents for staff and students are regularly updated with accurate information about ASO/PAT support and student development services across the College.
• Overseeing the development and optimisation of referral systems to ensure timely and effective student support, tracking engagement and outcomes.
• Liaising closely with colleagues responsible for specific aspects of student support, including the Student Support Team, Academic Skills Team, Wellbeing Team, and Employability Services, to create a joined-up approach to student success.
• Monitoring and enhancing the effectiveness of the ASO/PAT model, using feedback, engagement data, and student performance metrics.
• Developing mechanisms to identify at-risk students early, ensuring appropriate interventions are made to support student retention and success.
• Supporting the development of student-facing workshops and resources to enhance independent learning, resilience, and academic confidence.
• Contributing to the development of institutional policies and strategies related to student academic support and engagement.
• Representing the student academic support service in meetings, working groups, and strategic planning discussions.

• Essential: Student academic support experience.
• Experience or knowledge of quality assurance and OFS regulation.
• Experience or knowledge of higher education and ability to use a range of delivery techniques to inspire and engage students.
• Ability to work as a team member to enhance the quality of taught provision, increase levels of student satisfaction, improve levels of student retention, progression and employability, and support student enterprise activities.
• Communicate information effectively, both verbally and in writing, engaging the interest and enthusiasm of the target audience.
• Ability to influence, collaborate and interact effectively with a range of stakeholders including staff (at all levels), students and others.
• Ability to respond and adapt with agility to often rapidly moving events and developments in both the school and College.
• Excellent written and oral communication skills including networking and relationship building skills, both across the University and externally.
• Able to demonstrate both independent self-management and team working.
• Able to work with competing priorities and to tight deadlines.
• Demonstrates competences, core behaviours and supplementary behaviours that support and promote the University’s core values.

• Able to participate in and develop external networks.

• Essential: Highly effective interpersonal and communication skills including oral; written/literacy; numeracy and presentation, underpinned by the ability to use IT to support students and discharge administrative responsibilities (e.g., MS Office and Outlook).
• Evidence of the use of VLEs in teaching (e.g. MS Teams/Blackboard/Moodle).
• An appropriate level of digital capability and aptitude with practical experience of applications which aid student learning.
• Committed to a high-performance culture, fostering continuous improvement, and driving quality.