Student Retention and Success Officer at Oxford… · Greenwich

Job purpose

To provide a specialist service to help the school to raise achievement by improving school attendance and punctuality and to meet the Greenwich University International College attendance targets. To promote positive attitudes of students towards education and ensuring that they are made fully aware of their statutory responsibilities, particularly where there is persistent absence.

The core focus of this job is to complement the professional work of the Academic Department by taking responsibility for implementing the College’s Attendance and Engagement Policy and improving the attendance of home-assessed and overseas students on visa.

The successful candidate will be responsible for recording, monitoring, evaluating and reporting on attendance data. In addition, they will work within the Student Services team, promoting good attendance, identifying students with poor attendance and working with the Programme Coordinators & Senior Tutor teams to improve student attendance as per the requirements of the College’s Attendance and Engagement Policy.

Main Duties and Responsibilities

• Monitor and administer the UGIC Attendance inbox on a regular basis. Respond to student enquiries and encourage 100% attendance in all modules.
• Liaise with the Welfare Officer regarding student attendance related issues. Always keep up to date with students’ Welfare concerns that affect their full attendance.
• In collaboration with the Welfare Officer, seek and receive student evidence that can authorise absences and support appeals.
• Keep a neat and accurate record of all student evidence related to their attendance. In addition, be up to date with regards to their finance situations, academic performance (grades) and general Welfare updates.
• Support the Welfare and Finance Officers in participating in student meetings that are related to student attendance.
• Create a system and / or a working process that will enable a more efficient and timely way of dealing with Stage 3 Attendance Warning meetings and appeals. Follow up initial Stage 3 Attendance Warning emails with reminders to encourage students to meet their appeal deadline.
• Apply the University of Greenwich Attendance policy, ensuring that compliance requirements are always met.
• Monitoring the completion of all tutors’ attendance registers and send reminders to the tutors who fail to complete them daily.
• Inform students on low attendance on a regular basis by emailing them Attendance Stage warnings (Stage 1, Stage 2 & Stage 3 warnings) while ensuring that UGIC follows the compliance requires of the University of Greenwich.
• Hosting weekly meetings with the programme coordinators, senior tutors and senior leadership team to discuss students with low attendance, Welfare and/or finance issues and agree on the action to be taken by the relevant parties in order to increase student attendance rates. Keep a record of all actions agreed and follow up on updates regularly.
• Ensuring that all records of evidence and student status (withdrawn, terminated, interrupted, fallow term etc) is up to date and easily accessible to the University of Greenwich compliance team. Especially when it comes to attendance warnings, authorised absences, student appeals and decisions.
• Until an Information System Software is successfully implemented in UGIC, weekly registers for tutors and attendance registers will manually be created and monitored on a regular basis.
• Uploading the latest versions of the attendance registers for all staff to view student attendance
• Create student list which has all groups for each subject and keeping this updated with withdrawals etc
• Supporting tutors with any queries they may have with regards to registers, student attendance records or students whose attendance the tutors are concerned about and involve the Welfare Officer where necessary.
• Ensuring that all relevant UGIC Admin colleagues are informed, aware and up to date with regards to student attendance, welfare, finance, student records and potential day to day issues; and that all parties are aware of how to access the necessary information.
• Take active part in the new intake inductions as advised by the College Manager.
• Take active part in the implementation of Bromcom, a student database which will eventually become the primary source of student information and attendance monitoring.
• Potential mini presentations to all UGIC staff on inset, sales conference etc days.

Person Specifications

Legal status

• Right to work in the UK.
• Willingness to undertake appropriate safeguarding and pre-employment checks.

Knowledge

• An understanding of issues that may affect a student’s ability to attend lectures • Knowledge of attendance regulations and targets
• Knowledge of school procedures
• Knowledge of UKVI student visa requirements for attendance

Experience

• Experience of working with Bromcom or a similar data management system
• Administrative experience in educational environments
• Experience of working with young people and adults from different cultural backgrounds
• Willingness to undertake appropriate training and professional development
• Experience of working in an educational environment
• Experience of implementing attendance policies

Occupational skills

• Excellent communication skills, including advisory and persuasive skills
• Ability to establish positive and effective relationships with members of staff and students
• Excellent organisational skills
• Excellent ICT skills, outstanding knowledge of Excel
• Ability to keep accurate records – attention to detail and a good level of numeracy
• Ability to work successfully as a team
• Ability to work on own initiative
• Ability to prioritise work under pressure, remain organised and meet strict deadlines
• Confidentiality

Personal qualities

• Strong work ethic and capacity for hard work
• Ability to relate well to colleagues and students
• Knowledge of and genuine interest in attendance related educational issues and how they apply to this part of the University
• Emotional resilience in working with challenging behaviours and attitudes
• Flexibility

Qualifications

• Level 2 qualification or equivalent to demonstrate good literacy and numeracy skills
• Level 3 qualification in business/finance/administration or equivalent

Other requirements

• Commitment to the schools policies and ethos

Disclaimer

This job description is provided as a guide to the role. It is not intended to be an exhaustive description of duties and responsibilities and may be subject to periodic revision.

Oxford International is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, and applicants must be willing to undergo child protection screening appropriate to the post, including checks with past employers and the Disclosure and Barring Service. This role involves working with children and is exempt from the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974.

Oxford International is an equal opportunity employer. Every applicant and employee has the same opportunities regardless of race, colour, ancestry, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, age, citizenship, marital status, disability, gender, gender identity or expression, or veteran status. We reserve the right to close this vacancy earlier than the advertised closing date should we receive a high volume of suitable applications. We therefore encourage interested candidates to apply as early as possible.