Senior Officer

Senior Officer - Competition and Registration

Multiple posts

Bristol

Full-time, part-time, job share

£39,792 - £40,811

Plus generous civil service defined benefit pension

About us

The Office for Students (OfS) is the independent regulator of higher education in England. Everything we do is aimed at achieving one core goal: to ensure that every everyone in higher education, whatever their background, has a fulfilling experience that enriches their life and career.

We are looking for committed individuals who really care about students to join us as risk managers in our compliance and student protection directorate. In an unusually varied role - combining both casework and policy development work - you will be at the forefront of regulating universities and colleges across England. You will use your skills as part of a fast-paced, forward-looking organisation with high ambitions and big opportunities.

The role

Risk manager is a challenging, hugely diverse and ever-evolving role, which makes it a fantastic learning opportunity from day one. As a member of our compliance and student protection directorate, you will take on a variety of projects relating to issues that impact on the student experience. Gathering information and analysing data, you will formulate evidence-based conclusions and identify the best way to resolve issues. You will also be involved in broader policy development. Across all that you do, you will have the flexibility and creativity to come up with new ways to address each project.

This is a particularly exciting time to join us, as we are evolving our regulatory approach post-pandemic.

Changes

to the way we regulate the quality of higher education courses will allow us to intervene where these fall below our expectations and help us to ensure that all students, including those from disadvantaged backgrounds, have meaningful choices of high quality courses and are effectively supported to succeed. As part of our new approach, we are also

consulting on a new approach

to regulating student outcomes.

Successful applicants may be assigned to work in any of the directorate’s key project areas, and will rotate across those areas in line with directorate policy. Examples of directorate functions you may be delivering include market entry, degree awarding powers, university title, and risk assessment and monitoring and intervention for registered providers.

About you
- Demonstrable ability to understand and interpret the OfS’s regulatory framework and to use this to undertake assessments, risk assessments, and interventions; and to implement and communicate aspects of the regulatory framework
- Demonstrable ability to reach and convey reliable and challenge-proof judgements on the basis of complex and imperfect information
- Demonstrable ability to work with high levels of complexity and ambiguity
- Demonstrable ability to think broadly about the theory and practice of regulation
- Demonstrable ability to adopt a systems approach to service design and delivery
- Demonstrable ability to work collaboratively and flexibly in a complex environment through a matrix structure to deliver the team’s functions

Key responsibilities of the role are:
Delivering and working in a team:

- In the areas for which the postholder is responsible, the outcomes and objectives in the OfS’s business plan are delivered efficiently and effectively
- The postholder delivers their objectives in a way which results in: delivery of the OfS’s behaviours and values; and flexible, agile and collaborative working, including with staff and teams in other directorates

Ensuring that the OfS is able to discharge those of its statutory functions that fall within the remit of the team:

- Individual providers are assessed, risk assessed and monitored in relation to the initial and ongoing conditions of registration, on the basis of the provisions of HERA and the OfS’s regulatory framework
- Individual providers are assessed in relation to the DAPs and university title requirements, on the basis of the provisions of HERA and the OfS’s regulatory framework
- Reliable, evidence-based recommendations for decision-makers are made
- Investigation, intervention and enforcement action is carried out in relation to individual providers, on the basis set out in HERA and the OfS’s regulatory framework
- One or more strands of activity from across the work of the directorate are delivered. Depending on the post holder’s initial assignment these strands of activity may include:

- system development required to implement and operate the regulatory framework effectively
- operationalisation of agreed approaches for one or more conditions of registration, including quality conditions
- development and implementation of one or more aspects of the regulatory framework, or of the OfS’s business plan
- the OfS’s function as principal regulator of registered providers that are exempt charities
- identifying and