Director - Student Recruitment and Engagement

Full Time, onsite
University of Southampton Malaysia
Iskandar Puteri, Malaysia

Salary undisclosed

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Job Purpose :

This position is responsible for leading the Student Recruitment and Engagement Unit across a range of portfolios, with student recruitment at the forefront. The role encompasses student recruitment, emphasizing student acquisition and recruitment channels, school relations and partnerships, and agent management and development, both domestically and internationally.

The Director will develop and provide leadership for implementing UoSM's strategic recruitment plan and industry and institutional engagement to connect with future students and create demand for UoSM's suite of educational programs. They will oversee market intelligence, statistical reviews, and course viability and relevance evaluations. The Director plays a pivotal role in meeting Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for student numbers and revenue generation objectives.

The role will also involve directing the implementation of UoSM's brand strategy and raising brand awareness. The Director will lead all aspects of external communications within Malaysia and internationally, connecting the University to its future students, both domestic and international. The Director is required to maintain effective professional relationships with both external and internal stakeholders, working collaboratively across functions to achieve set objectives and KPIs. They are to lead, motivate, and inspire staff through clear vision, communication, and personal influence, representing UoSM to its internal and external stakeholders.

The Director will also work closely with the COO in liaison with UK international recruitment, providing existing market and customer insights for further business development, competitive analysis, and corporate communications. This position requires strong teamwork skills and the ability to promote a cooperative culture among colleagues, including academic staff across the full range of academic disciplines.

Through membership of critical University committees and less formal processes as appropriate, the Director will work closely with other senior management members in UoS UK. As a senior member of the University, the Director is also expected to contribute to the effective running of the University more broadly by active involvement in other activities and participation in relevant committees, including the Executive Group.

Strategy And Student Recruitment

Develop and maintain integrated recruitment strategies including Student acquisition, Recruitment channels, School relations and partnerships, Agent management and development.
Assist in digital marketing campaigns aligned to business objectives, brand expectations and relevant to the continuous evolution of the business.
Ensure key brand and product propositions are appropriately communicated to recruitment team to enable key messages to be accurately presented to the market.
Maintain effective links with UoS UK to ensure coordinated branding of UoSM programs; and to ensure University-wide policies in areas such as agent recruitment, performance monitoring and re-appointment are adhered to at UoSM.
Lead and oversee the network of recruitment agents both within Malaysia and internationally; ensure agents are well informed about programs and developments at the University; and drive development of external stakeholder relations as required e.g., other universities, agents, schools, government agencies etc.
Lead the Recruitment team to ensure the effective development and implementation of rolling 12-month multi-channel marketing plans that are integrated with sales activity plans.
Lead annual reviews of UoSM products with SWOT, competitor analysis, customer insights, agreed product changes, pricing strategy, sales and marketing plans and delivery requirements.
Provide customer and market intelligence while working collaboratively with the COO to support strategic initiatives in bringing the customer voice to new business development strategy.
Conduct environmental scanning and make recommendations for new and emerging product development opportunities.
Contribute to effective marketing communication, coordination and collaboration across all internal customers (stakeholders).
Lead and manage efficient internal systems and processes for Education.
Counselling and Admission functions in supporting student recruitment.

Strategic Brand Management

Lead the implementation of UoSM’s Masterbrand strategy and decentralized brand platform across UoSM, in close liaison with and consistent with UoS, UK and its brand identity, to ensure all stakeholders can faithfully represent the UoS brand in their communications and actions.
Create and sustain clearly differentiated product and brand propositions which inform the University’s messages to the market.
Act as Brand Guardian and ensure that the brand is appropriately positioned in the market across all stakeholder touchpoints.
Lead continuous development and refinement of guidelines for presenting the UoS brand to market including use of brand assets and tone of voice and ensure this is available to all stakeholders.
Work with stakeholder groups across the institution to ensure that their business unit develops a clearly agreed messaging strategy and proposition which leverages the UoS brand.
Lead the establishment and collation of brand awareness metrics including an annual brand awareness survey and recommend improvements to brand position through product or positioning actions.
Lead and manage consistent branding identity to facilitate building awareness and maintaining credible market image as an employer.

Recruitment Services & communication

Lead the Recruitment team to develop and implement corporate communication strategies and tools aligned with branding.
Lead the recruitment team to develop communication strategies to engage with future students and other external stakeholders.
Provide leadership for implementation of recruitment and branding initiatives through various corporate communication activities including public relations, media management, print publications, advertising, event management, visual communication, web-based communications, e- marketing, owned and earned social media and other digital and media platforms.
Lead strategic plans of recruitment events to best leverage student recruitment outcomes and publicity campaigns.

Financial

Assist UoSM to achieve profitable growth that meets Return on Investment (ROI)
Manage marketing budgets - expenditure against agreed limits.
Ensure accurate, documented financial and management reporting requirements are met.

Leadership

Create a working, learning and development culture that ensures the University has the organizational capacity to achieve its vision.
Adapt to changing business conditions by identifying potential drivers of change and proactively manage priorities and activities.
Keep abreast of legislative and other requirements of the Malaysian and/or UK governments and relevant accreditation bodies relating to student recruitment and ensure compliance by UoSM.
Drive the development and monitoring of KPI, policies and procedures for
the unit and identify any gaps for continuous improvement and operational efficacy, to contribute to the overall University strategies as well as to ensure consistency with university policies and procedures.
Build capability and manage talent within the team to support growth and bench strength for the future.
Set professional standards for staff and ensure staff development activities are deployed to properly develop the capacity of staff to carry out their roles competently.
Fully align the individual performance plans for staff to support the realization.
of the strategies and plans, evaluate performance against targets accordingly.
Build a productive working environment through constructive and timely feedback and by ensuring appropriate involvement, delegation and monitoring of staff.
Implement Human Resources initiatives that support staff retention and
engagement.
Encourage a culture of coaching, professional development, self- improvement, and self-reflection for continuous growth.

Occupational Health and Safety (OHS)

Facilitate the establishment and promotion of OHSMS policy and objectives to enhance the effectiveness of OHSMS through directing the execution of OHSMS improvement plans as well as ensuring the implementation of safe work system and adequate provision of resources to fulfil OHS requirements and objectives.

UoSM Behaviors

Commitment to the UoSM Behaviors:

Communicate: Say it – have the conversation, respect each other’s differences, give meaningful feedback, and share honestly and openly.
Listen and learn: Hear it, learn from it – learn from one another, actively listen to each other, resolve conflict and be innovative.
Collaborate: Share it – work constructively together with a common purpose to achieve the University’s goals.
Trust: Trust it – be open to and with others, act with fairness and respect, inspire positive expectations and communicate honestly.
Act: Do it – have a strong sense of immediacy, take practical action and see it through.

Customer Service

Champion a culture of ‘customer centricity’ throughout UoSM.
Collaborate with internal and external customers to better understand, anticipate, and meet the current and future needs of the branch campus university and its students in accordance with organizational expectations.
Implement high quality processes that document, assess, improve and
deliver favorable service performances.
Be accessible for client enquiries; and respond to clients in a timely manner.
Ensure front counter personnel provide a friendly, helpful, and responsive service to students and parents

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