Senior Student Engagement Adviser

£30,577 to £32,455 per annum (for exceptional performers, there is scope for further progression up to £37,323.25 per annum)

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

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.

The Registry support 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 practise.

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 Senior Student Engagement Adviser, you will be part of the wider Registry Team and lead in the identification early on of students at risk of disengagement, failure, or non‑completion, be able to understand the student record and provide timely advice, support and guidance, and lead decision making to elevate referrals to a range of specialist support services to satisfy regulatory and policy requirements throughout the academic year.

You will liaise closely with Student Services, College Registry Operations, Student Hub, work alongside academic teams, external IT provider and IT Services/DS&S to develop and implement an improved engagement process delivering improved student outcomes and retention.

In this role, 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 the development, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of the student engagement monitoring business process and its associated system tools and will require initiation and co‑ordination of interventions and continuous improvement activities across a range of teams to improve the student experience and continuation on programme.

You will become a recognised expert in the University for the student engagement process and a point of contact for all student engagement particularly for our foundation, 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).

You will also support our Student Hub offering advice and guidance to students, 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 campuses for student activity and work flexibly to support open days, enrolment and graduation events throughout the year alongside the wider Registry staff.

This role is a fixed term contract for 18 months.

We are looking for bright and innovative applicants 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.

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.

• Have a high level of understanding of the student journey and act as a source of advice for staff and students on the range of support available to assist and guide students, including self‑help, face‑to‑face advice and written sources covering a range of student matters.

To advise academic tutors and programme teams about issues affecting student success.

• Respond to escalated issues and cases from Student Engagement and Achievement Graduate interns to identify and intervene with students at risk of disengagement, failure, or non‑completion, using relevant student attendance, engagement and achievement data and intelligence from the student record systems and other key indicators.
• To offer information and advice to students either in response to student self‑referral, referral from academic staff or through initiating contact with students who appear to be in need of additional support.
• Have a high level of understanding of the student journey and act as a source of advice for staff and students on the range of support available to assist and guide students, including self‑help, face‑to‑face advice and written sources covering a range of student matters.

To advise academic tutors and programme teams about issues affecting student success.

• As appropriate undertake engagement processes for non‑UK students to ensure university compliance with UKVI directives.

This will require interventions to be made, including holding formal interviews with students identified at risk.

• Maintain accurate paper and computerised records on all non‑UK student compliance requirements to support with regular reporting to the UKVI and other external bodies.
• To ensure effective communication with the International Compliance Officer and Senior International Officer regarding work in progress, implementation of developments and emerging trends or issues in the non‑UK population.
• To ensure effective communication with the Operational Compliance Manager, with regards to apprenticeship students, regarding work in progress, apprenticeship compliance issues, implementation of developments and emerging trends or issues in the student apprenticeship population.
• To deliver key improvement projects allocated to the student engagement adviser by the strategic academic engagement team or the Registry leadership team as part of their development, which will enhance the student and staff experience.
• To meet with 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 support students who have not handed in their scheduled assessment(s) to understand the options open to them for either handing the assessment in late or submitting an exceptional circumstances claim.
• 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.
• Communicate with students and staff via various means to deliver timely information and key messages.

To contribute to sharing good practice across the university by developing case studies and articles about university student experience activities.

• 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 and ensure the effectiveness of the engagement process is quantified and communicated.
• 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.
• Use judgement to determine action plans to re‑engage students or prioritise escalations to a more formal engagement review within the boundaries of the role and champion the student engagement process across University forums at all levels.
• Escalate issues or concerns with recommended course of action based on evaluation of evidence to the allocated Team Leader/Line Manager and/or appropriate Academic Co‑ordinator.
• Any other duties commensurate with the post and salary as determined by managers.
• 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 and prioritise workload
• Experience of delivering information in a creative and engaging way
• Experience of managing and monitoring process improvement
• Experience of facilitating change and challenging resistance to change

Skills, knowledge & abilities

• Contributing to the development of innovative solutions to problems, addressing the root cause, taking containment and preventative actions and measuring results
• 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
• Able to recognise the need and be willing to work outside of normal hours at times as relevant to achieving service delivery, targets and deadlines, such as during enrolment and graduation
• 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
• 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

Experience

• Experience of working in the Higher Education sector
• Experience of working in a student support environment
• Generous annual leave entitlement of 38 days inclusive of bank holidays and concessionary days (pro rata)
• 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

For further information and informal enquiries regarding the role, please contact Richard Tarplee, Assistant Registry Services Manager via r. g. tarplee@derby. ac. uk

For enquiries regarding your application and for sponsorship eligibility, please contact the recruitment team via recruitment@derby. ac. uk .

The University of Derby 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 onto 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 minimising 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.

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.

The University of Derby is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of all our staff, students and children.

At the University of Derby, safeguarding is everybody's concern.

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