Senior Student Support Officer

at  Kings College London

Job id: 086609. Salary: £37,332 including London Weighting Allowance.
Posted: 20 March 2024. Closing date: 02 April 2024.
Business unit: Faculty of Life Sciences & Medicine. Department: Faculty Education Services.
Contact details: chrissi.robinson@kcl.ac.uk. Chrissi Robinson
Location: Guy’s Campus. Category: Professional & Support Services.
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Job description
This role forms part of the Student Support Team within Faculty Education Services in the Faculty of Life, Sciences and Medicine. The team supports students and academics across all taught programmes within the faculty.
Working in a fast-paced environment, you will develop strong working relationships with teams across Faculty Education Services, university services and key academic colleagues. You will be expected to proactively coordinate the provision of student support for students on UG and PGT programmes, ensuring that processes and procedures are reliable and effectively meet the needs of students, academic colleagues and other stakeholders.
You will be responsible for producing accurate records of support meetings with students and sharing these in a timely manner as well as providing administration across the broad range of student support, coordinating associated procedures, maintaining records and managing casework. You are expected to have a good understanding of the student lifecycle and maintain up to date knowledge of programme and university regulations and protocols. You will need to be able to use this knowledge to provide accurate and timely guidance to colleagues and students as required, escalating where there is risk, ensuring that early intervention is both appropriate and optimal.
You will be highly organised, motivated and capable of working independently as well as being part of a team. You will have experience of dealing with students who may be navigating complex difficulties and signposting them to support services as appropriate to ensure students receive the best possible support. You will be comfortable and resilient in managing sensitive conversations and challenging situations.
This role does not meet the requirements of the Home Office and therefore we are not able to offer sponsorship for candidates who require the right to work in the UK.
This post will be offered on an indefinite contract.
This is a full-time post.
Key responsibilities
Assist in the provision of student support for taught programmes, effectively meeting the needs of students, academic colleagues and other stakeholders through the use of efficient reliable systems
Support with the day-to-day service requirements across a broad range of student support workstreams and individual casework, such as Occupational Health referrals, engagement concerns, referrals to counselling and other university service, cases of misconduct and student suspension, support for study and fitness to practice
Take ownership of the student support mailbox; ensuring all student support enquiries are answered daily and escalating complex, urgent or sensitive contact as appropriate
Work collaboratively with colleagues throughout Faculty Education Services to deliver a highly coordinated and prompt approach to issues that may impact the student experience
Represent the Student Support Team at Faculty and university activities, participating in and engaging with events, such as hub cover, placement site visits, welcome, enrolment, examinations and graduation
Take personal accountability for student casework, ensuring records are maintained and actions are completed in a timely manner, coordinating to ensure local versus central student support provision at KCL is joined up and meeting the student need, escalating any concerns as necessary
Contribute to the production of student support information; ensuring handbooks, policy and process documentation are updated and that accurate and comprehensive information is available in good time to students & other stakeholders and is accessible via KEATS
Take personal accountability for the data quality of the student record, ensuring record keeping is accurately maintained and is of a highly organised standard, able to withstand audit scrutiny and support accurate statutory returns at short notice. This high standard extends across all record keeping whether on spreadsheets, email, SITS student record or other system
Ensure all work is carried out in a professional and timely manner, with appropriate confidentiality and sensitivity
Maintain an up to date knowledge of the data protection requirements and to support Freedom of Information and subject access requests
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

• Excellent time management and organisational skills and the ability to work to tight deadlines and plan effectively across competing priorities
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills including the ability to draft correspondence and documents autonomously to a broad range of audiences
• Experience of case work, with appropriate record keeping and knowing how to apply the principles of confidentiality and referral
• Have a methodical but flexible approach to work, maintaining a high level of accuracy
• Ability to work under pressure to complete a range of competing priorities, requesting and utilising support as and when required
• Knowledge and understanding of the range of university support services, how they are structured and their core services and processes
• Evidence of capability to interpret and apply university and programme regulations
• Ability to manage individual workload while working to deliver shared team service levels and objectives
• Experience of stakeholder management, ability to work with a broad range of stakeholders in a professional and assured manner
• Excellent IT experience across Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook with a working knowledge across all other Microsoft packages and experience in the use of databases and student records systems (such as SITS)

Desirable criteria

• Previous HE experience within programme support
• Mental health First Aid Certification or equivalent

Please refer the Job description for details