Student Experience Officer

Job Description

To support the Student Experience Manager (SEM) in the development and delivery of an enhanced and distinctive student experience within the King’s Foundations.  

 

To support King’s Foundations students in their effective transition to a UK HE environment, enhancing their student experience at King’s.  

 

To ensure effective communication with students and staff about services and support available to them in the department and across the College.  

 

The role is primarily based at Bush House on the King’s Strand Campus though you may be required to travel to other campuses on occasion.  King’s Professional Services staff can work in a hybrid working pattern with working from home permitted for up to 40% of each week. Changes to this pattern may occur and are determined by required output and departmental need. 

 

This post will be offered on an indefinite contract.

This is a full-time post.

 

Key Responsibilities 

 

• To support enhancement activities for students from pre-entry through to degree progression, coordinating with SEM, programme leadership, personal tutors, and professional services to create an effective, integrated support system.   
• To develop sustained relationships with central Students & Education (SED) teams, including but not limited to King’s Residences, the Counselling Service, Student Lifecycle Events & Engagement teams, Student Advice Team, the Visa & International Student Advice Team and central registry functions, sharing best practice, collaborating on projects and ensuring that updates to services, regulations, and policies are cascaded appropriately.    
• To support the Student Experience team in delivering all student feedback mechanisms within King’s Foundations and King’s Language Centre. To ensure that there is an effective student representative structure in place and to lead in the organisation of the Staff Student Liaison Committee (SSLC) process, including co-ordination and delivery of rep elections, recruitment, engagement, support, working with KCLSU to deliver training. To work with the Senior Student Experience Officer to create and delivery all comms relating to student feedback.  
• To use Power BI and other relevant tools to administer and report on student surveys for King’s Foundations and King’s Language Centre.  To work with the Student Experience team to use student and staff feedback mechanisms to identify possible improvements to the student experience, ensuring action is taken where feedback clearly suggests it is needed, and monitoring the impact of any new initiatives introduced.  
• To support the Student Experience team in coordinating student enrolment and induction processes for King’s Foundations students.   
• To work  with Head of Programmes, Coordinators, Programme Managers, and key contacts throughout the College to deliver on core extra-curricular, transition and retention activity.  
• To support students in developing student-led activities, such as mentoring schemes or engagement with student societies etc. and working with the Lead Tutor, to lead on co-ordination and delivery of the Peer Assisted Learning scheme.  
• To maintain a range of information sources (e.g. KEATS pages, Teams, student comms, newsletters and Student handbook), both electronic and physical, on matters pertaining to student pastoral and welfare support to enable students to enhance their broader student experience.  
• To work closely with the Student Experience team to support delivery of a King’s Foundations student experience and communications strategy.  To proactively communicate with students, using a range of communication channels regarding all forms of support, activities, events, or initiatives that will enhance their student experience.  
• To work with the Student Experience team to design and deliver a programme of events for key student engagement activities to ensure a vibrant and inclusive extracurricular student experience coexists with an efficacious academic experience.   
• To support the Senior Student Experience Officer (Progression) and Programmes Team in signposting students to information and support for Tier-4 students, in liaison with International Student Advice and Visa Compliance.  
• To participate in departmental, School of PACE or College-wide working groups, project teams, or fora on topics related to the student engagement.  
• To undertake any other duties as directed by the SEM or Senior Student Experience Officers as may be reasonably requested from time to time.  

 

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

1.       Experience of supporting the student experience in a Higher Education setting 

2.       Strong interpersonal and communication skills including motivating, influencing and negotiating with stakeholders  

3.       Excellent written communication skills, with ability to tailor communications appropriately depending on messaging & audience   

4.       Experience of running successful small- and large-scale events 

5.       Excellent organisational and time management skills, with the ability to prioritise effectively and meet deadlines 

6.       Experience of managing feedback mechanisms and an understanding of the importance of the student voice within Higher Education 

7.       Understanding of the needs of international students, particularly in the context of student wellbeing  

8.       Excellent working knowledge Microsoft Office and online platforms, with confidence & drive to learn to use new systems when required 

9.       Strong commitment to equality & diversity in the workplace 

 

Desirable criteria

1.       Educated to degree level  

 

Further information

About King’s

King’s College London is one of the top 25 universities in the world according to the 2016-17 QS international world rankings, is the fourth oldest university in England and is a research-led university based in the heart of London. 

 

King’s has over 29,600 students (including more than 11,700 postgraduates) from some 150 countries and over 8,000 employees. Our students are located in 9 faculties: www.kcl.ac.uk/faculties-departments 

 

Our work is guided by our Strategic Vision (Vision 2029). It shows how King’s will make the world a better place by focusing on five key strategic priorities: educate to inspire and improve; research to inform and innovate; serve to shape and transform; a civic university at the heart of London; an international community that serves the world. 

 

King’s provides world-class teaching and cutting-edge research; in the 2014 Research Excellence Framework (REF) King’s was ranked 6th nationally in the ‘power’ ranking, which takes into account both the quality and quantity of research activity, and 7th for quality according to Times Higher Education rankings. Eighty-four per cent of research at King’s was deemed ‘world-leading’ or ‘internationally excellent’ (3* and 4*). The university is in the top seven UK universities for research earnings and has an overall annual income of just over £738 million. 

 
 

About King’s School of Professional & Continuing Education

King’s School of Professional & Continuing Education is a new, cross-cutting function designed to widen the educational reach of King’s. It brings together five existing areas: King’s Foundations, Summer Programmes, Modern Language Centre, King’s Online and King’s Professional & Executive Development. Each of these areas are well established, respected and recognised within and beyond the King’s community. Utilising this success as a springboard, the School of Professional & Continuing Education has been established to provide a clear platform to enable greater and more seamless collaboration with colleagues in Faculties, enabling, developing, and delivering a wider view of education across the College, delivered on campus, online and in a blended format. The Function will support King’s in this area, particularly around educational innovation, and transformational learning experiences for different groups of students at different learning moments, whilst also addressing current structural barriers to growth each area faces.    

 

Our vision is to work collaboratively with Faculties to develop and deliver King’s ambitions in expanding learning opportunities across the education spectrum. By expanding what education means at King’s, the new School will offer a joined-up approach to facilitating a broader King’s education experience to individual learners, public and private sector groups, and partners, both in the UK and internationally.   

 

About King’s Foundations

King’s Foundations is a leading centre for EAP and pathway education across the HE sector, accredited by the British Council. As one of the largest providers of pathway education, we welcome over 2,500 students each year across our King’s International Foundation Programmes and our range of Pre-sessional Programmes, with programmes offered online, on campus and in a blended way. We also offer a range of short courses with partners and support all King’s students through contributing to a range of co-curricular academic skills and language development courses.   

 

Our mission is to support a diverse group of learners to achieve their potential at King’s, supporting students to become independent and inquisitive learners. King’s Foundations is home to approximately 80 permanent staff, growing to around 150 during our busy summer months.  We champion a forward-thinking approach to education and take a digitally enabled approach across all aspects of education. Over the last 6 years, the department has seen significant planned growth in support of King’s Vision 2029, with annual income of over £20m.