Student Engagement Adviser - Graduate Intern

Honours degree or Higher qualification

Responsible to Attendance Monitoring Manager

Location: Kedleston Road, Derby Campus

Closing date: Tuesday 28 July 2026

Salary: £25,802 to £26,582 per annum (for exceptional performers, there is scope for further progression up to £30,569 per annum)

Job grade: ATOS 3

Reference: 0169-26

Contract type: Fixed term contract 13 months

Post type: Full-time

Adaptive working type: Onsite

This role will be based on site, primarily in the named location.

About The University

We have one simple promise – to make a positive impact. Through our ground-breaking research, teaching excellence and commitment to sustainable living, we are changing lives for the better. The University of Derby is a modern university with a modern outlook. Everything we do is driven by delivering excellence and opportunities for our students, our staff, and our region. We have some of the best university facilities in the UK and achieve outstanding results for our teaching and research and have been awarded Gold in the prestigious Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF) 2023 – making it one of the top universities in the country recognised for its outstanding student experience and student outcomes. Financially strong and seriously ambitious, we offer our employees an inclusive culture that centres itself around staff wellbeing, where you can be confident you will receive all the help and encouragement you need to build a rewarding career with lots of opportunities to enhance your skills.

About The College/Department

The Registry supports all aspects of the student journey, right from initial enquiry and application, all the way through to final award and student completion. We strive to provide an outstanding service to all our users and to be thought leaders in our fields of expertise, developing research informed practice. Registry teams work collaboratively with stakeholders to deliver a high-performance culture that promotes wellbeing, diversity, and opportunity for all, supporting excellent student experience.

As a Student Engagement Adviser, you would be part of the wider Registry Team and may focus on Attendance Monitoring, College Registry Operations, Partnerships, Student Records and Awards, International Student Compliance and will work collaboratively in our Student Hub.

About The Role

We would like to welcome applications to become part of a dedicated team of Registry Advisers within the University of Derby. Our graduate interns make a significant contribution to the student journey which can help them achieve their success. You will provide student and academic administration across a range of programmes, ensuring that effective processes are in place to provide an excellent experience for students. Working collaboratively, you will liaise closely with Personal Academic Tutors, Student Services, College Registry Operations and the Student Hub.

As part of your role, you will learn to identify early on, students at risk of disengagement, failure, or non-completion, be able to understand the student record and provide timely advice, guidance, and referrals to specialist support services including regulatory information throughout the academic year. You will play a key role in addressing student progression, retention, and achievement, contributing to student success and a positive student experience.

The role will involve using the existing Student Engagement monitoring tools and developing and facilitating further interventions with a range of teams to improve progression, retention, and achievement. You will be a recognised point of contact for engagement particularly for our first-year and international student cohorts. You will be responsible for ensuring data quality within a right first-time ethos for all data within your business area, supported by an awareness and understanding of the data processed within your area, particularly any data classed as personal or sensitive.

Working together with colleagues in our academic colleges and professional services, we aim to provide a high-quality user experience for students and staff who support the student journey (admissions to graduation). Supporting our Student Hub offering support, advice and guidance, or referring to specialist teams on a variety of areas. We are committed to excellence and continuous improvement in all that we do and aim to provide a service that is fair, compliant, professional, and dynamic.

The role will be based at Kedleston Road although you may be required on occasion to work at our other campus for student activity and work flexibly to support open days, enrolment and graduation events throughout the year alongside the wider Registry staff.

Please note the Student Engagement Adviser role is a Graduate Intern role for University of Derby Graduates who have graduated in the last 2 years. The post is not available for those who have previously held a graduate intern role within the University of Derby.

About You

We are looking for bright and innovative graduates to fill intern roles; with an eye for detail, you will work on new initiatives and projects with teams across the Registry and assist with core operational activities with the aim to support students and help improve student engagement. You will have recent experience of higher education, as a recently graduated student and/or have experience in a student support role. Being digitally focused you will be confident in working with a range of technologies, understand data and the use of technology to gather information and provide analysis. You will also have excellent communication capabilities. This will enable you to gain a clear understanding of the level of student engagement and performance on the programme with working knowledge of the wider services of the Registry to enable you to deliver a seamless service to students and staff.

The role will require a high level of adaptability and flexibility, with professionalism, empathy, strong communication skills, sound knowledge of university regulations, processes, and student support. Registry staff display positive attitudes, behaviours, and attributes which support excellence, innovation, and achievement. This is an interesting and varied role and you will join a supportive collaborative team which has student support at its heart. This role will offer you the opportunity to increase your development and transferrable skills for your future career prospects.

Principal Accountabilities

• Fully engage with the Student Advisor Intern programme within the Registry. Include the production of progress reports and or presentations with a view to developing their skill base for future development and employment opportunities.
• Engage with and support students within the Student Hub, working collaboratively with all areas of the University to ensure the best response to students during their journey of study.
• To form part of the Registry taskforce supporting core operations such as Confirmation of Acceptance for Studies (CAS) Issuance, Enrolment, Right to Study Checks, Graduation preparation and on the day support.
• Work closely with Programme teams to identify and intervene with students at risk of disengagement, failure, or non-completion, using relevant student achievement and engagement data and intelligence from the student record systems and other key indicators.
• To deliver key projects allocated to the Student Advisors as part of their development, which will enhance the student and staff experience.
• To meet with all students considering withdrawal and/or leave of absence to ensure that students are aware of the options under the academic regulations and that they are aware of the support services available in the university where applicable.
• To assist in the development, planning, delivery, and evaluation of specific initiatives, such as Induction, to facilitate and support increased retention and engagement in addition to raising awareness amongst students of wider support available.
• Within the context of wider University communication schedules, to support colleagues in implementing a ‘keeping warm’ communications strategy for students during the summer vacation, particularly those students undertaking reassessment or deferred assessment, and those on leave of absence.
• Collect and compile data from across institutional platforms and systems to enable accurate and timely monitoring of student engagement.
• Record keeping and report writing: Maintain records of interactions with students; Produce data reports and analysis using available monitoring and evaluation data relevant to contacts with students, interventions and outcomes; Ensure an inclusive service with a focus on delivering excellence.
• Escalate issues or concerns to the allocated Team Leader/Line Manager.

Person Specification

Qualifications

• Honours degree or Higher qualification
• Applicants must be recent graduates of the University of Derby who have graduated from their course within the last two years.

Experience

• Experience of delivering information, advice, and guidance
• Experience of working in an administrative role in a service setting
• Experience of understanding and applying data protection requirements
• Experience of using data to manage workload
• Experience of delivering information in a creative and engaging way

Skills, Knowledge & Abilities

• Excellent customer service skills
• Contributing to the development of innovative solutions to problems, addressing the root cause
• Working collaboratively across boundaries to achieve common goals
• Excellent interpersonal and communication skills
• Ability to demonstrate tact and diplomacy in dealing with a wide range of contacts both internal and external to the University
• Good judgement of situations and people and the ability to respond appropriately
• Ability to take a professional approach and work on own initiative and as part of a team
• Flexible and adaptable in approach to work
• Ability to understand and apply regulations/rules e.g. GDPR, quality assurance frameworks
• Confident and able to demonstrate digital competency across a range of technologies, including but not limited to Microsoft Office
• Systematic and organised to manage competing priorities
• Excellent ability to retrieve, manage and analyse data, identifying themes and patterns, making pragmatic recommendations for action, where required
• Ability to clearly present and articulate information verbally, as well as in writing to a range of audiences
• Up to date knowledge of current issues affecting Student Engagement within HE
• Ability to work in a fast-paced environment
• Consistent and reliable

Business Requirements

• Ability to work outside of normal working hours (including some evenings and weekends), to support the business during key University events, such as Graduation, Clearing and Open Days
• Willingness and flexibility to travel and work between University and external sites in a cost-effective and timely manner as relevant to support staff, attend events, meetings or for presence

Desirable Criteria

Experience

• Experience of working in the Higher Education sector
• Experience of working in a student support environment

Benefits

• Generous annual leave entitlement of 38 days inclusive of bank holidays and concessionary days (pro rata)
• Local Government Pension Scheme
• Suite of holistic wellbeing benefits and support including family-friendly policies, generous sick pay provision and comprehensive Employee Assistance Programme
• Access to a variety of staff discounts at high street retailers
• Discounted onsite gym
• Cycle to Work scheme
• A flexible working environment
• A commitment to personal and professional development

Important information

Visa Sponsorship Eligibility: The University is unable to sponsor the employment of international workers under the Skilled Worker route for this role; however, applications are welcome from candidates who are able to demonstrate an alternative right to work in the UK.

Equity, Diversity and Inclusion: The University of Derby is committed to promoting equity, diversity and inclusion, regardless of age, disability, trans status, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief (or none), sex and sexual orientation. We are Disability Confident Employers, demonstrating our commitment to disability inclusion, and invite applicants to highlight adjustments they may require to ensure equitable participation in our recruitment processes. Further, we are committed to ensuring an environment which is trans and non-binary-inclusive for all our staff, students, partners, and visitors, and continuously review our policies, guidance, and training. When applying to join the University, you can choose your preferred title, including the gender-neutral title 'Mx'. We also ask our candidates if they would like to share their preferred pronouns. This is voluntary but demonstrates our commitment to inclusivity for trans and non-binary candidates. Once employed, you can add pronouns and preferred names to our system. The University of Derby undertakes anonymised shortlisting during the staff recruitment process. This means that, when shortlisting, panel members will not be able to see an applicant’s name and will see an applicant number instead. This demonstrates the practical steps we are taking to remove barriers to recruitment by minimizing the possible impact of our unconscious bias. However, you identify, we actively celebrate the knowledge, experience, and talents each person brings. Our students come from a wide range of backgrounds; therefore, we are particularly interested to hear from applicants who will help our leaders and teams be more reflective of our student population.

Environmental Sustainability: At the University of Derby, we are passionate about embedding sustainability into everything that we do. We aim to bring environmental sustainability into all aspects of the University, including teaching, research, and operational activities. In line with the University's strategic framework, we expect all our staff to embed sustainability into their working practices and support the University's objective to reach net zero carbon by 2050.