Senior Officer, Academic Administration

University of Ottawa•Lexington, MA

About The Position

The FSS comprises nine departments, schools and institutes, which offer undergraduate, masters and doctoral programs in both English and French. With its 10,000 students, 260 full-time professors, and wide array of programs and research centres, the Faculty of Social Sciences plays a key role at the heart of the University of Ottawa. Its graduate students are supervised by excellent researchers and undertake cutting-edge research in the Faculty's masters and Ph.D. programs. Along with its complement of about 100 administrative employees, the faculty is proud to provide a collaborative working environment that inspires new ideas, encourages creative ingenuity, and promotes excellence. Position purpose: Under the supervision of the Lead Coordinator of Academic Administration, acts as the first point of contact for students by receiving, anticipating, acknowledging and responding to various student requests and provides an excellent customer service to attract, retain and maintain sufficient number of students in all programs of study. Performs administrative tasks such as assessing requests, making recommendations, approving certain requests and following up with students, colleagues and other faculties. As an ambassador for the University and the Faculty, attends convocation ceremonies and various events to promote the services of the University of Ottawa and the Faculty. In this role, your main responsibilities will include:

Requirements

Knowledge of administration normally acquired through post-secondary education and several years of experience in a similar role.
Knowledge of academic programs at the high school, college, undergraduate and postgraduate levels
Knowledge of and experience interpreting, communicating and applying processes, policies and methods
Experience researching and analyzing data as well as creating administrative and statistical reports
Experience in problem solving and decision making
Experience in customer service
Experience in implementing strategies and business plans for students
Experience with Microsoft Office Suite (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Access), word processing, Windows and Internet
Capacity to deal with conflicting priorities and respect strict deadlines in a fast paced environment
Organizational skills, excellent judgment and attention to detail
Ability to listen and a strong sense of work ethics
Bilingualism: French and English (spoken and written); to be considered for this position, candidates must be rated at the Low Advanced proficiency level or higher for both oral comprehension and reading comprehension in their second official language. The rating is determined by a proficiency test designed by the Official Languages and Bilingualism Institute.

Responsibilities

Academic Development and Student Retention Evaluate student needs by analyzing, identifying, interpreting and translating student needs to determine which policies and procedures need to be activated.
Support the planning process for student interventions by providing a diagnosis and recommendations to address student issues.
Assist to the implementation process by providing relevant information to inform the approach for each intervention.
Perform follow-ups for student files to facilitate meeting administrative and academic timelines.
Redirect students to the appropriate services to ensure they receive proper support to help them pursue their studies.
Operations Management Analyze student files with conditional acceptance and/or equivalences, so the Academic Development and Student Retention Specialist can follow up with these students.
Monitor these files to ensure that administrative and academic deadlines are respected.
Serve as a first point of contact for students by receiving, acknowledging and taking action on student requests for modification to their selected program of study.
Serve as a first point of contact for students by receiving and acknowledging student requests for course selection and registration.
Determine the eligibility of the request. Based on eligibility, approve course selection for first year students and special students and perform the necessary steps to finalize requests.
Evaluate files pertaining to academic performance and taking all necessary steps to populate relevant systems.
Identify students in difficulty and students who might potentially experience academic difficulties by analyzing academic performance and other relevant data (ex. absenteeism rates).
Share information with colleagues to alert them of potential student intervention opportunities.
Serve as a first point of contact for student by receiving and acknowledging student requests pertaining to student mobility (ex. permission letters, agreements, etc.).
Determine the students’ eligibility and coordinate the course selection to facilitate the transition to other programs and/or institutions.
Graduation: Conduct a primary evaluation of files while respecting the policies and processes to identify and prepare files for graduation.
Attend the graduation ceremony as an ambassador of the University.
Coordinate the course selection process such as maintaining course sequences, ensuring the course schedule is available on SIS and reconciling enrolment limits (ex. classroom capacity versus registration and demand rates) and necessary activities related to these enrolment limits.
Ascertain that follow-up actions are initiated within defined timelines to increase positive student experience.

Benefits

The University of Ottawa offers a generous pay and benefits package that includes a competitive salary, a defined benefit pension plan, group insurance coverage and an employee and family assistance program.

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