Student Wellbeing Manager - Dubai Campus

Job Posting Title:  Student Wellbeing Manager (Dubai)

Grade and Salary: Grade 8 

FTE and working pattern: Full Time

Organisation Name: RAS

About our School/Directorate and Team:

The Global Registry and Academic Support Directorate supports our students and staff across the full student life-cycle from enrolment to graduation.

The Directorate has responsibility as the definitive record-keeper of all student information, programme and course details, as well as leading services that help students settle and stay at the University. This includes providing professional help and advice through a range of support and wellbeing services.

The Directorate supports academic and professional services staff across the University in a number of areas, including: academic, institutional and student related Regulations and Policies, and global, national and institutional quality matters.

It delivers these services through five Divisions, each managed by a Global Head, and two Heads of Campus Registry and Student Services:

Student Life

• Online Students
• Academic Operations
• Academic Quality
• Academic Secretariat, Regulation and Policy
• Head of Registry & Student Services – Dubai Campus
• Head of Registry & Student Services - Malaysia Campus

The Student Life Division in Dubai is made up of five areas:

• Student Service Centre: A single point of access for students that delivers a consistent student experience, including face-to-face and virtual services (eg, enrolment, student account payments, student records, etc.)
• Student Records: Responsible for the management of back-office functions to support the Student Service Centre, acts as the definitive record-keeper of the student record, and manages standard/consistent processes for all student transactions (eg, transfer, Temporary Suspension of Studies, etc.).
• Wellbeing: Provides a range of services to support the student journey including support for people of determination, mental health, and retention activities.
• Careers and Graduate Futures: Delivers career and employability advice to students and recent alumni, working closely with local and global employers, and with Heriot-Watt’s Schools supporting the employability strands.
• Student Experience: Supports the Student Council, and coordinates activities and events for students to facilitate their extra-curricular development and build community.

Purpose of Role

Heriot-Watt University, in common with all other Higher Education Institutions, has seen a significant rise in both the extent and severity of mental health difficulties in the student community.  The main purpose of student wellbeing is to provide advice, information and support to undergraduate and postgraduate students throughout the student lifecycle from enrolment to graduation. 

The counselling portion of the role focuses on assessing the needs of students referred to the service who present with emotional difficulties to ensure that appropriate interventions are delivered for students. The successful candidate will carry a caseload of students who need ongoing support.  This will range from providing on-going counselling; providing therapeutic support; making referrals to external agencies; and liaising with external professionals to ensure appropriate care and support. 

As the manager, you will be responsible for leading and managing counselling and wellbeing projects across both mental health and students of determination/disability, developing resources, planning and delivering therapeutic interventions and wellbeing strategies and respond appropriately to risk and crisis situations. You will  line manage a team of counsellors, disability advisers and student success advisers. The successful candidate will work alongside the other members of the Wellbeing team to develop a psycho-educational programme of workshops and other proactive support initiatives for students. You will also work closely with other teams from across the Student Life Division, in particular the Student Experience, Student Success and Student Council teams locally and globally. 

This post reports to the Head of Registry and Academic Support.

Summary of Key Duties and Responsibilities:

• Work Collaboratively with the Global Head of Wellbeing to manage the counselling team and assume some case management responsibility
• Maintain a counselling workload
• Undertake initial assessments of students presenting at the counselling and support service and assess their needs
• Identify where there is a need for formal counselling or ongoing Psychological or Psychiatric services and make appropriate referrals to external agencies.
• Report to the Student Life Manager / Head of RAS any urgent or crisis cases that may require safeguarding intervention.
• Organise and contribute to case conferences as appropriate
• Monitor referral rates, caseloads and priority allocations. 
• Maintain appropriate records and make use of the IT based systems and provide written reports as directed by Student Life Manager /Head of RAS (Dubai) or Global Head of Student Wellbeing
• Develop and drive general wellbeing strategies, initiatives and psychoeducational programming to support the student community working alongside the Student Life Dubai team
• Engage with counselling colleagues across all campuses to collaborate on global wellbeing activities
• Oversee the departmental budget, ensuring that resources are managed and effectively planned
• Oversee training programmes to provide advice, guidance and support, regarding student mental health issues, to wellbeing colleagues, academics, administrative staff and relevant external partners 
• Review and develop policy to ensure that it is aligned globally with local contextualisation
• Develop effective working relationships with others in the Wellbeing teams and the Student Life Division globally and contribute to global wellbeing initiatives and consistent provision where applicable
• Develop relevant literature, resources, policies and procedure in relation to the service, working in an integrated way with other colleagues
• Look to develop links and network within the local region to raise the profile of Wellbeing at Heriot Watt Dubai
• Maintain own professional development and supervision.
• Assume line management responsibilities as assigned by the Head of RAS
• Provide support and coverage of cases for Students of Determination/Disability as needed 
• Any other task or project as requested by the Student Life Manager/ Head of RAS (Dubai) or Global Head of Student Wellbeing

Education, Qualifications & Experience: 

Essential

1. Qualified and Accredited Counsellor  
2. Professional Qualification or membership of Professional body (where applicable)
3. Extensive experience of counselling in an HE setting 
4. Experience of planning and delivering a wide range of therapeutic interventions and wellbeing strategies 
5. Experience of managing counselling projects, and developing relevant resources 
6. Ability to respond appropriately to risk and crisis situations. 
7. Ability to build constructive relationships across the University and with key external agencies. 
8. Experience of working within a similar environment as outlined above
9. Ability to persuade, motivate and lead a team, including setting objectives and managing workload
10. Competent in the use of relevant IT packages 
11. Demonstrable substantial professional expertise in own specialism
12. Well-developed understanding of relevant legal, statutory and governance applications and turning them into good practice (specifics, e.g. H&S, employment law, statutory requirements, may be specified here)
13. Excellent interpersonal, influencing and presentation skills, able to understand and communicate complex issues effectively
14. Demonstrable excellent customer service 
15. Demonstrable ability to work quickly, flexibly and accurately in a dynamic, changing and pressured environment
16. Experience of working closely with stakeholders across all levels of the organisation 
17. Ability to research, analyse and present complex information effectively with good attention to detail
18. High level planning and organisational skills with the ability to prioritise major developments and to function effectively in a pressured environment
19. Demonstrable professional and proactive approach
20. Ability to work effectively both independently and as part of a team 

Desirable

1. Experience of working in Higher Education 
2. Ability to manage budgets
3. Specific systems, legislative, procedural, technical knowledge/experience

Special Factors (relevant to specific role)

• Occasional requirement to work at weekends or out of hours

Heriot-Watt University Values

With a history dating back to 1821, Heriot-Watt University has established a reputation for world-class teaching and professionally relevant, leading-edge research, which has made it one of the top UK universities for business and industry.

We are a vibrant, forward-looking university, well known for the quality of our degrees with employers actively seeking out our graduates.  Heriot-Watt is also Scotland’s international university with an unsurpassed international in-country presence. We deliver degree programmes to circa 30,000 students in 143 countries around the world, have a further overseas campus in Dubai and boast the largest international student cohort in Scotland.

At Heriot-Watt we’ve created an environment that nurtures innovation and leadership - where our researchers, staff and students can realise their potential and develop their ambitions.

We are proud of our collegiate atmosphere and integrated teaching and research approach which has helped to build a community of committed academics and highly motivated students.  Our focus on careers delivers results and we’ve an excellent reputation for graduate employability.

In addition to the Edinburgh campus, we currently have campuses in  the Scottish Borders, Orkney, Dubai and Malaysia.  For all of our campuses we aim to provide stimulating, supportive environments conducive to effective learning and research, where staff and students can excel. At Heriot-Watt, we have an established set of values that help us to nurture innovation and leadership, and show our commitment to continuous improvement and development in all our activities.

Our values describe our deeply held beliefs and our community spirit. They characterise not only how we are as a higher education institution but also frame how we want to be.

Our values are:

• Belong
• Collaborate
• Inspire
• Celebrate

As learning, living and working institution, we use our values as the building blocks of how we go about doing our work and how we each conduct ourselves as members of Heriot-Watt University. They represent what binds us together as a University community and help us to become the best at what we do.

For full details on our University, please view our website https://www.hw.ac.uk/about.htm

‘How to Apply’

Interested applicants must submit applications attaching an updated CV. 

At Heriot Watt we are passionate about our values and look to them to connect our people globally and to help us collaborate and celebrate our success through working together. Our research programmes can deliver real world impact which is achieved through the diversity of our international community and the recognition of creative talent that connects our global team. 

Our flourishing community will give you the freedom to challenge and to bring your enterprising mind and to help our partners with solutions that can be applied now and in the future. Join us and Heriot Watt will provide you with a platform to thrive and work in a way that also helps you live your life in balance with well-being and inclusiveness at the heart of our global community.

The appointment is conditional upon successful completion of all Labour and Immigration formalities, and the start date will need to be delayed if the employment visa is not in place.