Job Title: Student Support Officer
Company: William College
Location: Onsite, Stratford, UK
Reports to: Student Experience Manager
Department: Student Experience
Employment Type: Full-Time, On Campus
Working Schedule: 9AM to 5PM, Monday to Friday
Salary: £28,000 - £34,000 per annum (Depending on experience and qualifications)
About the Role
As a Student Support Officer, you will play a vital role in ensuring the smooth operation of William College. You will be responsible for providing administrative support to various departments and assisting students with their queries and concerns. Your attention to detail, excellent organisational skills, and strong communication abilities will contribute to the overall efficiency and effectiveness of our administrative processes.
Responsibilities
- Act as a first point of contact for students in person, by telephone and by email, responding to queries on attendance, registration and re-registration, assessment submission and general College processes.
- Resolve routine queries at first contact and refer specialist or complex matters to relevant staff and/or departments.
- Support scheduled student communications, including reminders on deadlines, registration windows and timetable changes.
- Log enquiries and referrals so that recurring issues and pressure points can be identified by the department.
- Process and accurately record absence notifications in line with the College’s Engagement Policy.
- Assist with day-to-day monitoring of attendance and engagement data, including registers, VLE activity and assessment submission, and bring students falling below expected thresholds to the attention of the line manager.
- Provide administrative support with student support meetings, including scheduling, preparation of papers, note-taking and follow-up of agreed actions.
- Support the preparation of attendance confirmation returns to partner universities, ensuring records are complete and accurate.
- Maintain accurate, current and complete student records on the College's student information system, including absence records, interactions and referrals.
- Handle student information in accordance with the College's Data Protection Policy and UK GDPR.
- Produce regular and ad hoc reports for the Department Manager on attendance, engagement and submission activity, presented clearly and in a timely manner.
- Contribute data to wider departmental and committee reporting as requested.
- Support student-facing events including induction, enrolment and open days.
- Undertake other duties commensurate with the grade and purpose of the post, as may reasonably be requested by the line manager or Department/Divisional Manager.
Education and Qualifications
- Bachelor’s degree
Experience & Knowledge
Essential
- Administrative experience in a higher education, service or student-facing environment.
- Experience of maintaining accurate records, databases or filing systems, preferablyA within higher education.
- Proficiency in using IT systems to record, search and retrieve data, including Microsoft Office (particularly Outlook, Word and Excel).
- Effective oral communication, adapting style appropriately to a wide range of audiences.
- Ability to prioritise competing deadlines and workloads, while maintaining a high level of accuracy.
- Ability to work on your own initiative, demonstrating a positive approach to problem solving.
- Willingness to learn and develop and contribute to the wider activities of Student Experience and College.
- Demonstrate empathy to understand and address students’ concerns.
- Ability to maintain confidentiality and handle sensitive personal information with professionalism, in line with data protection requirements
- Strong interpersonal skills for building rapport and trust with students.
- Capacity to assess situations and provide practical solutions.
- Ability to adapt to changing circumstances and student needs.
- Commitment to equality, diversity and inclusive practice, and to supporting students to succeed
- Willingness to work occasional evenings or weekends during peak periods such as enrolment and open days
Desirable
- Experience of working in higher or further education, or another student-facing regulated environment
- Familiarity with a student information system, CRM or virtual learning environment.
- Understanding of the barriers faced by students from diverse or non-traditional backgrounds.
- Mental Health First Aid certification, or experience of recognising signs of distress and referring promptly to specialist support.
Benefits
- Annual leave (7.2 weeks)
- Workplace pension scheme.
- Company Sick Pay.
- Statutory maternity and paternity pay.
- Employee Assistance Programme (HA Wisdom Wellbeing)
- Virtual GP access (Livi)
- 'Speak Up Service' - confidential support service to report any workplace concerns
- Specialist physical and mental wellbeing support services with 24/7 confidential counselling support (Wisdom)
- Specialist menopause support, including online CBT (Wisdom)
- Financial, legal and medical advice services provided (Wisdom)
- Life & Leadership coaching (Wisdom)
- Financial coaching (MUNNY)
- Discounts and perks, offering savings on shopping, activities and more (Bright Exchange)
- Career development and training opportunities.
- Training and self-development opportunities.