Academic Director of King’s Edge

Job id: 086525. Salary: Professorial Band 1, £80,324 – £99,420 per annum, including London Weighting Allowance.

Posted: 19 March 2024. Closing date: 02 April 2024.

Business unit: King’s Education. Department: King’s Academy.

Contact details:Samantha Smidt. [email protected]

Location: Strand Campus. Category: Academic & Teaching.

Job description

King’s has a long-standing mission to lay the foundations by which our graduates make impact in the world. This is present in Vision 2029 and Strategy 2026 which set out a commitment to knowledge with purpose. This purpose includes that which our students bring, evolve and advance in their time with us. It is not only developed through the taught curriculum, but in the richness of opportunity to learn, experience and do beyond the classroom. To make these opportunities more explicit, and to support our students to benefit from them, we are developing King’s Edge.

Under the leadership of the Vice President (Education and Student Success), King’s Edge will draw together the various elements of King’s co-curricular offer, extending and integrating it more effectively into our education proposition. It will support students to transform activities such as volunteering, paid work, or SU engagement into credit which can contribute to their degree award.

King’s Edge will provide a rich and vibrant offer for all students. It will invite them to build their student journey in a more individual purposeful way and strengthen their sense of connectedness. King’s Edge will promote access to opportunities and social connections for students from under-resourced backgrounds, priority groups, and those living with a disability.

King’s is seeking an academic leader who can bring the vision for King’s Edge to life. They will develop the King’s Edge proposition and engage staff and student communities in its creation. They will build the momentum required to realise its establishment and oversee its journey from a new initiative to a fundamental part of the King’s student experience. The post-holder will require a strong understanding of Experiential Learning and have experience of leading on similar student experience programmes and educational innovation. They will need to have senior leadership experience within an educational setting, particularly in navigating complexity and building the partnerships required to establish a new initiative.

The post-holder will work closely with the Director of King’s Academy and the Vice-President (Education and Student Success).

We encourage applications from candidates who have experience from both within and outside of the Higher Education sector where they can demonstrate the skills needed to succeed in this role.

This post will be offered on an indefinite contract.

This is a full-time post.

Key responsibilities

• Provide strategic leadership to work with a wide range of King’s academic and professional services teams, as well as students, to develop the King’s Edge proposition and oversee its establishment.
• Provide thought leadership on positioning students as core to King’s excellence, rather than beneficiaries of it through the harnessing of extra-curricular and co-curricular experiences to support students in building agency, purpose and intentionality.
• Grow the reach of King’s Edge so it becomes a distinctive part of a King’s education, with a particular focus on benefiting students from under-resourced backgrounds, priority groups and those living with a disability.
• Establish the governance structure for King’s Edge and a process for awarding credit.
• Identify and manage the financial and staff resources required for King’s Edge.
• Create a means to evaluate the effectiveness of King’s Edge and report on its success.
• Use data to target King’s Edge opportunities in response to student aspirations.
• Represent King’s and King’s Edge at external fora.

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

Evidence of leading student experience programmes.

Experience of integrating world-leading disciplinary learning with a porous extended curriculum, scaffolding independent and collaborative enquiry and the ability to learn adjunct skills and knowledge.

Extensive experience of working at a senior level and with a wide range of stakeholders to improve the educational experience of students.

Knowledge of best practice in Experiential Learning and educational innovation.

An ability to build, sustain and develop relationships at all levels, internally and externally, using negotiation and influence to achieve strategic objectives.

Ability to engage in collaborative working across King’s professional services, other faculties, academic and student communities, with a meaningful and visible commitment to Diversity & Inclusion policies and practices.

Ability to evaluate and use evaluative data to improve practice.

Understanding of the political, social and economic factors shaping the student experience across the sector, and ability to apply this understanding to the King’s context.

Desirable criteria

Record of outputs relating to Experiential Learning and educational innovation – i.e. participation and presentation within networks and events related to this area of work.

This post is subject to Disclosure and Barring Service clearance.