First interview for managerial post at UU - what to expect?

thefreckle

Can you be more specific about the post/department? Is it in Employability and Marketing by any chance?

If you could provide more information I could maybe tailor some advice to the specific role/department.

edtheduck_2

Thanks for all your input
Micmac - have heard of STAR, thanks and am an ex-student so know the campus well
thefreckle - dont want to be too specific as to where it is, but its in Student Support area

thefreckle

edtheduck wrote: »

Thanks for all your input
Micmac - have heard of STAR, thanks and am an ex-student so know the campus well
thefreckle - dont want to be too specific as to where it is, but its in Student Support area

Well, some general info on UU then that might be useful.

The obvious challenge for all 3rd level institutions is student numbers. Students fall into 2 main categories - MaSN and non-MaSN (Maximum Student Number). MaSN numbers are capped by Stormont - those students in that category are full time undergrad students from NI and the EU (not including GB). Those students fund themselves to the tune of £3.5k per annum and DEL provide further funding to the institution in the form of a block grant. Anything over the cap is not funded so, to maximise revenue, it's important to get as close to the cap as possible without going over it.

Non-MaSN is eveyone else - part time, post grad, overseas (non-EU), GB, etc... There is no cap on these numbers as they are all self funding and so DEL has no input into recruitment caps.

As a result of higher tuition fees there's a move towards seeing the student as more of a customer - students are rightly demanding higher quality. It seems as well that students can't often fend for themselves so their parents are as important - very often the parents will be providing the £3.5k in fees!

In terms of support for those students, the university provides a number of services. I'd know more about the administration side of things as opposed to student support (disability services, etc...) Administration is provided on a 9 - 5 basis (sometimes 9.30 to 4.30) - there's obviously room for improvement there. What about PT students who only study in the evenings? They have to take time off work to get to their campus before those offices close - not a great service. Also, Belfast is the highest populated city in NI, and UU has teaching facilities there. In spite of that, most PT courses run on the Jordanstown campus - why not make life easier for students and hold the lectures in Belfast - people could walk to the campus from work instead of having to drive/get the bus or train to Jordanstown. The answer to that is the lecturer is based in Jordanstown and couldn't possibly travel all the way to Belfast!

UU also claim that they try to attract people back into education. However decisions taken recently (such as closing the creche on the Jordanstown campus) don't attract people back to study. Where's the support facilities for these people they want to attract?

One of the main buzz words in 3rd level education at the minute is employability. Graduates leaving the university should be employable. To try and achieve that, the university provides a number of PPD (Personal and Professional Development) modules on top of the normal degree the student will complete. They are not required to provide these modules and they are not compulsoryfor the student. Examples of them include Preparation for Placement, Employability through work experience, etc...

I'm not sure if any of that will be helpful, but might be a bit of useful background.

Macmac_3

Student Support is going through quite a lot of change at the minute so my guess would be that they are looking for someone who can lead their team through change and who can introduce new streamlined processes, for example changing paper based processes to IT processes. Depending on the post, at managerial level, they are also likely to be looking for good experience in financial management.
As an ex-student you should have good knowledge of what students need. My experience would say that being able to reach out to students can be difficult so it might be useful to think about better ways of communicating with them, through their website or social media.
Just a few pointers, as I said before the best bet is to use the personnel specification - and look relaxed and confident on the day!!