Senior Programme Officer

Job description

King’s College London has exciting opportunities for people interested in pursuing a career or taking their next step in Higher Education administration. The School of Security Studies is recruiting a full-time Senior Programme Officer

who will be responsible for managing the administration of postgraduate programmes within the Department of War Studies. The School of Security Studies includes the Departments of War Studies, Defence Studies and the King’s Institute of Applied Security Studies.

The Senior Programme Officer provides essential administrative support to students and academics. Working in a fast-paced environment, the role includes taking responsibility to resolve complex queries and issues, supporting activities such as timetabling and the production of handbooks, using databases and Microsoft Excel to maintain accurate student data on progress and achievement, and delivering a high-quality service across the student lifecycle. Working with colleagues to plan and coordinate a varied set of activities, you will have opportunities to further develop your knowledge of regulations and process and be part of professional networks promoting best practice. As part of the King’s community, you’ll work alongside inspiring academic staff, administrators and students.

The post holder will oversee, co-ordinate and line manage the work of a small team of Programme Officers to ensure that their activities are carried out efficiently and that administration of all matters relating to the student and staff support across the department is carried out to a high-level of accuracy and consistent standard.

The role will report to the School Programmes Manager and is based at the Strand campus. Professional services staff are currently working on a hybrid basis, meaning that the role holder will spend part of their working week on campus and the remainder working remotely.

This post will be offered on a full-time, indefinite contract.

Key responsibilities
- Work with relevant colleagues to plan programme cycles, considering the provision of processes throughout the academic year, identifying priorities and demonstrating flexibility throughout the cycle, recognising when priorities change, amending plans and adjusting work patterns accordingly
- Coordinate programme administration processes relevant to the area of work, including assessment processes, in line with university deadlines and regulations, and Faculty and external requirements
- Coordinate the management of day to day student enquiries with the Programme Officers to provide responses as appropriate within agreed timeframes, taking responsibility for responding directly to more complex enquiries and escalating with line manager when required
- Ensure that quality assurance requirements and, where required, accreditation requirements are met for all provision.
- To service committees as directed by your line manager.
- Coordinate module evaluation processes in line with current university best practice
- Develop and improve the service through eliciting and responding to service user feedback, identifying and suggesting service improvements and implementing new ways of working as directed
- Work flexibly as part of a team, supporting others in times of high-volume activity.
- Participating in and coordinating new starter inductions. Covering staff absence and deputising for the line manager as and when required
- Work with the wider university community to ensure up-to-date and consistent practices are followed when utilising systems (e.g. student records systems and virtual learning environments) to undertake both day-to-day functions and higher-level processes such as reporting and extracting data, ensuring accuracy of data and identifying and resolving issues
- Engage with and triage students’ pastoral care needs, resolving straightforward issues where appropriate and escalating with, and informing, key stakeholders as per university frameworks
- Receive, investigate and resolve low-level complaints and address service setbacks, exercising judgement and escalating to line manager where required
- Take personal accountability for the data quality of student records, ensuring records are accurately maintained in accordance with the agreed retention schedules
- Ensure all work is carried out in a professional and timely manner, with appropriate confidentiality and sensitivity.
- 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. Excellent written and oral communication skills including the ability to draft documents and correspondence autonomously to a broad range of audiences

2. Strong numeracy skills and ability to analyse complex numerical data

3. Excellent time management and organisational skills and