Based in the heart of Birmingham city centre, University College Birmingham (UCB) is a specialist, aspirational and globally connected institution offering vocational education and training within a supportive learning community. Our vision is to unlock the talent of our learners to help them achieve their ambitions, maximising opportunities for career progression and personal fulfilment. We have invested over £160m in our teaching and other facilities over the last ten years to ensure an outstanding learning environment.

The University started its life as a Further Education (FE) College which gained independence through incorporation in 1993 and full university status in 2012. We are immensely proud of our roots in FE and our ability to offer progression routes and career pathways into Higher Education (HE). Approximately 30% of our current student body are FE students and the other 70% are HE students. We have exciting ambitions to grow and diversify further our FE and HE strategic portfolios and align a unique offer to provide career ready graduates of the future who are highly employable.

It is an incredibly exciting time at the University, with an accreditation agreement in place with the University of Warwick since January 2022. This is the first step in a wider strategic partnership between the two institutions, one which we hope will build on our existing relationship and give us new opportunities to harness the distinctive and collective strengths of our two universities. With 1600 students already on UoW programmes, we are now working together closely on a range of projects designed to enhance opportunities for students and address regional needs in the West Midlands.

We have ambitious plans for our future and to realise this, we are now seeking a Director of Policy and Strategic Planning to lead a newly developed Department of Strategic Planning and Analytics. This department will be the central unit for the strategic planning process, KPI performance target monitoring, quality metrics, variance analysis and data management.

We are therefore, looking for an outstanding individual with demonstrable advanced knowledge in data analysis, IT and Digital skills to enable the University to make strategic decisions based on robust data analytics that can be applied to support the Executive Management Team (EMT), Schools, and Professional Services in delivering the highest outcomes for our students.

The Director will have responsibility for strategic planning, complex analytics, managing risks, governance, and horizon scanning and will be required to provide expert advice on KPI benchmarks, performance and identify any strategic issues, and risks. The successful candidate will have expertise and market intelligence in policy and regulation, understanding trends and risks and be accountable for quality and accuracy of data to support an evidence-based approach to inform decision making.

They will lead and project manage strong collaborative links for portfolio development and financial budgeting and planning, working in collaboration with the Deputy Vice Chancellor and Chief Academic Officer and the Executive Director of Finance and Corporate Services to develop and support effective planning rounds. This will include recruitment targeting and key student outcome metrics that make a positive contribution to the University’s key performance indicators, including recruitment targets, continuation, completion, progression, student experience, graduate employability, student retention and awarding gap.

You will have excellent communication skills for working in meaningful partnerships with academic teams, professional services, industry, and external stakeholders, with extensive experience of leading change and empowering others.

You will bring a demonstrable ability to work innovatively and at pace, and be adept at collaboration locally, regionally, and nationally and possess in-depth experience of Higher Education policy, compliance, and the regulatory and funding landscapes.