Academic Dean

ACADEMIC DEAN Job Responsibilities

UK Management College (UKMC) is a private, widening-participation higher education provider established in 2016, delivering degree programmes with an integrated Foundation Year in partnership with universities that act as the awarding bodies. The College delivers, but does not develop or award, curriculum: all programmes are validated or franchised by its partner universities — the University of Wolverhampton (principal partner), Canterbury Christ Church University, Arts University Bournemouth and Health Sciences University — and are delivered across the College's campuses in Manchester (College House, Salford and Abarna Campus), Derby, Newcastle (North Shields) and Sunderland.

Course delivery is organised course-wide rather than campus-by-campus: each programme is led by a Course Director who owns the Course Performance Plan across all campuses, while at each campus a Head of Academics (Campus Academic Lead) works with Course Officers and Module Leaders to deliver and assure provision locally. The College measures its success through retention, continuation, completion and progression.

The Academic Dean is the College's senior academic leader for the delivery of all courses, with all partner universities, across all campuses. The post holder holds executive responsibility for ensuring that every programme the College delivers is up to date, coherent and effectively delivered in accordance with the regulations of the relevant awarding body; that delivery at every campus is properly resourced, staffed and quality-assured;

and that assessment, examination and academic-standards processes operate credibly and consistently. The Academic Dean owns academic workforce planning and academic staff recruitment, ensuring the College has the qualified, developed and well-supported teaching workforce its students and partners require. The Academic Dean reports to the Associate Provost / Provost and works in close partnership with the Dean of Student Experience, whose teams provide the academic services — Personal Academic Tutoring, wellbeing, engagement, academic language and learning, employability, academic integrity, and research and knowledge exchange — that surround and support course delivery.

Together, the two Deans are jointly accountable for the College's student outcomes: continuation, completion and progression at or above the College's institutional targets, which are themselves set above OfS numerical baselines.

Reports to:

Associate Provost / Provost. Line manages:
Associate Deans and Assistant Deans; through them, the Course Directors; and the Academic Heads of Campus (Campus Academic Leads) at each campus. The wider academic delivery workforce — Module Leaders, Course Officers, Lecturers and Assistant Lecturers — reports through this structure. The Head of Learning and Teaching reports to the Academic Dean for the teaching-quality, observation and academic CPD agenda.

Works with:
The Dean of Student Experience; the Academic Registrar and the Academic Services and Registry structure; the Head of Quality and Compliance; the Head of Human Resources (academic workforce planning and recruitment); the Chief Operating Officer (timetabling, estates and campus resources); partner universities (awarding bodies), their link tutors and boards; and the College's senior committees.

Chairs the Faculty Committee; member of Academic Board and the Executive Board as constituted; senior oversight of the Course Coordination Committee (chaired by an Associate / Assistant Dean) and, through Course Directors, of the Course Committees for every programme.

Provide institution-wide academic leadership for the delivery of the College's full course portfolio, ensuring delivery plans give effect to the Strategic Plan #removed# and the learning and teaching sub-strategy. Lead, develop and performance-manage the Associate and Assistant Deans, agreeing objectives, holding regular documented one-to-ones, conducting appraisals and building a capable, collegial academic leadership…