Job Description

The King’s community is dedicated to the service of society. King’s Strategic Vision 2029 sets out our vision for the future, shaped around five priority areas: educate to inspire and improve; research to inform and innovate; serve to shape and transform; a civic university at the heart of London; and an international community that services the world. Our ambitious Education Strategy sets out the actions that we must take to transform how we teach, how and where our students learn and how we support them during their time with us.  

We are part of the wider Students & Education Directorate, a collection of wide-ranging professional services in place to support King’s students and their education. As a directorate we manage the student lifecycle from application to graduation and beyond, to ensure a coherent and seamless student experience and effective administrative processes, working closely with King’s faculties to do so. 

About the Role

The Senior Student Funding Officer will be responsible for a wide range of activities as part of the Student Funding team, which offers financial support at undergraduate or postgraduate level. These include scholarships, bursaries and hardship funds as well as liaison and reporting requirements with external funding bodies such as the Student Loans Company (SLC), NHS and US Federal Loans schemes. 

The post-holder will manage a number of Student Funding Officers (SFOs) to deliver a professional and proactive service for the university. This will include setting clear objectives and overseeing the team’s workload to ensure a high-quality applicant experience, and both accurate and efficient advice, guidance and assessment. The post-holder will be a point of contact for queries from SFOs and colleagues across the university as well as training other members of the team and working collaboratively towards a shared goal.  

The successful candidate will have relevant experience as well as knowledge of Higher Education funding in the UK. This is an exciting opportunity for candidates looking to work in support of our students and who wish to expand their knowledge and expertise in the area of financial support.  

We encourage applications from candidates who have experience from both within and outside of the Higher Education sector where they can demonstrate the skills needed to succeed in this role. 

This post will be offered on an indefinite contract.

The post is offered as a full-time post, but we welcome applications from candidates seeking a flexible work pattern within our necessary service operating hours.

  Key responsibilities

• Ensuring the provision of a comprehensive administrative support service for the Student Funding Office (SFO) in line with both university and Government practices, procedures and regulations. 
• Managing the process of assessing student eligibility for hardship funds, scholarships and bursaries. Managing complex assessments, appeals, complaints and Freedom of Information requests in conjunction with the Student Funding Manager. 
• Ensuring the provision of a quality customer service, leading by example and ensuring that all internal SFO deadlines and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) are met and maintained. Ensuring provision of information, advice and guidance at university wide and faculty specific open days. 
• To work closely with the Student Funding Manager to coordinate and manage the work of the Student Funding Office to deliver a responsive and proactive service to potential, new and existing students including line management of Student Funding Officers. 
• Tasks related to the administration of the Student Loans Company notification tasks and data exchange, including registration, attendance confirmation and course and fee validation, as well as the submission of online tasks related to changes in circumstance. 
• Tasks related to the administration of the Erasmus+ and Transport for London Student Oystercard scheme, including validation and attendance confirmations. 
• Processing US Federal and private loans applications, including monthly reporting and reconciliation. 
• To provide accurate and professional advice and guidance through a range of formats including email/telephone enquiries, open day events, virtual hubs and similar. 
• To provide accurate and impartial specialist advice to prospective and current students, parents, teachers and other external parties on all aspects of statutory government student support packages, including direct intervention with Student Finance England, NHSBA, Student Loans Company and other relevant third party organisations; 
•  Attending, and coordinating representation at university Open Days, including information stands and presentations, live, pre-recorded and virtual and including occasional non-standard hours; 
• Performing any such duties as may be required in the area of student funding and other matters relevant to the work of the Student Funding Team or Students & Education Directorate. 

The above list of responsibilities may not be exhaustive, and the post holder will be required to undertake such tasks and responsibilities as may reasonably be expected within the scope and grading of the post.  

Skills, knowledge, and experience

Essential criteria

• Experience of working in higher education funding. 
• Highly proficient communicator (listening, speaking and writing), able to maintain enthusiasm and professionalism. 
• Strong IT skills including the ability to work proficiently with Microsoft Outlook, Word, Excel with the ability to adapt quickly to new software 
• Experience of delivering a high level of committed customer service, and experience delivering information and/or responding to enquiries. 
• Ability to work independently, prioritise competing demands, and manage team and own workloads effectively, and to work outside of standard hours where necessary. 

Desirable criteria **

• Knowledge and understanding of higher education, and the current issues and challenges in higher education Admissions. 
• Familiarity with university-related systems such as SLC, NHS and US loans portals. 
• Familiarity with the SITS Tribal student system. 

Further Information

Your application should clearly set out how you meet the essential criteria as this is how we shortlist applications. Learn more about how we recruit, including tips on writing your application and supporting statement on our website: https://jobs.kcl.ac.uk/gb/en/applying  

Interviews will be held using Microsoft Teams and will consist of competency-based questions linked closely to the essential and desirable criteria mentioned here.

Although we have made improvements over the last number of years, our team is still under-represented in terms of staff from global majority ethnicities, LGBTQ+ identities, and from people with disabilities. We encourage applications from all backgrounds, communities and industries, and are committed to employing a team that has diverse skills, experiences and abilities.

Interviews are scheduled to take place week commencing 28 February 2022.