Student Mental Health & Wellbeing Strategy Project Manager

Job Description

About Us

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 the Student Transition and Outcomes Department, who champion student success through meaningful collaboration with both students and staff to deliver a quality experience for students from all backgrounds. We work to address the sector-wide and institutional factors and barriers that contribute to lower rates of attainment, continuation and progression, and lead on the strategic development of student mental health and wellbeing, with a focus on students from underrepresented backgrounds and communities.

 

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 Student Mental Health & Wellbeing Strategy Project Manager will manage the development and delivery of projects that underpin the strategy including the student mental health & wellbeing advisory board, the institutional King’s Wellbeing Survey and the Time to Thrive wellbeing programme. They will also develop the communications plan for the strategy, and manage the Student Minds Charter submission and any associated projects.

 

The successful candidate will be a passionate and committed professional. They will demonstrate a keen understanding of the needs of underrepresented student groups and will work closely with colleagues to ensure that the needs of these groups are integrated into all aspects of delivery.

 

This is an exciting opportunity for someone who is passionate about student mental health and wellbeing and who wishes to utilise their skills and expertise to drive improvements across the student experience. 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.

This is a full-time post, but we welcome applications from candidates seeking a flexible work pattern within our necessary service operating hours. Our core working hours are 10am – 4pm.

 

Key responsibilities:

The Student Mental Health & Wellbeing Strategy Project Manager will be responsible for:

• Project management and stakeholder management of the Student Mental Health & Wellbeing strategy including leading on the creation of an institution-wide student advisory board
• Project management and stakeholder management of King’s application and submission process for the University Mental Health Charter Award
• Maintain institutional relationships with student leaders such as KCLSU Sabbatical Officers, KCLSU Wellbeing and the KCLSU Wellbeing Union Development Committee to coordinate student co-production as part of the strategy development process
• Coordinate the delivery of strategy project plans, reports, and evaluation frameworks
• Manage the delivery of communication plans to stakeholders, and monitor engagement with communications, in liaison with Communications colleagues across the university and KCLSU
• Work with the What Works team to plan and deliver our institutional King’s Wellbeing Survey and accompanying communication plans to disseminate key headlines and data analysis to staff and students
• Provide project coordination support for the delivery of the Time to Thrive wellbeing programme, in collaboration with academic partners
• Provide project management for working groups that report into the Student Mental Health and Wellbeing Steering Committee, including but not limited to coordinating meetings, creating agendas and minutes and managing several Microsoft Teams sites (and channels)

 

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 

• Relevant work experience and/or education: We think a wide range of different work and educational experiences could support you to be successful in this role. Relevant work experience might include work in student support, or project management. Relevant educational experiences might include higher education in a related discipline, professional qualifications or other training
• Strong commitment to understanding, and embedding into delivery, a whole university approach to support student mental health and wellbeing, especially intersectional mental health and the needs of underrepresented student groups
• Knowledgeable about key pieces of research, policy and best practices as it relates to university mental health in the UK sector
• Strong interpersonal skills, with the ability to communicate and distribute information clearly via different formats (including email, handbooks, and presentations)
• Ability to build and engage with internal and external networks critical to the success of the strategy, including students, academic staff, professional services staff, senior leadership and external partners
• Experience of leading and delivering projects with clear and measurable impacts
• Ability to work to a budget and ensure spending is accurately documented
• Ability to evaluate data accurately according to set objectives and in relation to departmental needs

 

Desirable criteria 

• Experience of co-production with students ranging from facilitating focus groups to coordinating student advisory boards
• Experience of delivering programmes in higher education and/or supporting and shaping the practice of those engaged in supporting students
• Sound knowledge of the issues currently facing the UK higher education sector, notably in relation to student mental health & wellbeing
• A recognised project management or change management qualification

Further information

Please submit a personal statement when applying for this vacancy, clearly setting 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 either the week commencing Monday 20th June or Monday 27th June.