Deputy Dean: Early Learning and Foundation at ADvTECH

Overall Job Purpose: 

• To support and assist the Dean in providing academic and strategic leadership, sound governance, development of academic capacity, and representation for the Faculty across the institution, its campuses, and other stakeholder groups.
• To support and assist the Dean in the alignment of the Faculty strategies, tactics, and operations, to the vision and mission of the Institution.
• To forge and strengthen links with external partners such as professional bodies, industry players, academia, and government in order to grow the Faculty’s academic credibility, gravitas and market share.
• To provide qualification-specific and discipline-specific focus to the Faculty, developing team cohesion and collaboration within these contexts.

Duties and Responsibilities:

Academic leadership and management

• Lead and manage the Academic Excellence of the Faculty in the Institution.
• Provide academic leadership for future-focused, innovative, and relevant undergraduate, post-graduate, and continuing professional development (CPD) of the Faculty if applicable.
• Facilitate collaboration with the Academic Centre of Excellence (ACE), internal and external institutions, and across Campuses.
• Inform the curriculum for qualifications and disciplines in the Faculty.
• Ensure timely delivery of academic material.
• Oversight of quality assurance within all aspects of the Faculty.
• Participate in key governance structures, processes, and committees.
• Ensure Faculty decisions reflect in Senate and other appropriate governance structures and processes to enable implementation.
• Ensure relevant, future-focused, innovative, and responsive Academic Community Engagement strategy and initiatives across the Faculty.
• Drive integration between the areas of Research, Teaching and Learning, and Community Engagement, as well as relevant evidencing.
• Facilitate alignment between the Faculty and other Institutional portfolios such as the Career Centre, Alumni, Student Engagement.
• Facilitate student engagement and participation in quality assurance.
• Inform and oversee the implementation of relevant teaching and learning initiatives.
• Ensure Academic and Industry relevance (research, new/updated qualifications, professional bodies, industry/market research, innovation).
• Collaborate with team members to analyse, report on, and improve students’ academic results and success and guide appropriate interventions where necessary.
• Develop, implement and align the strategic plan for the Faculty in conjunction with the long-term vision of the Institution as a quality higher education provider.
• Contribute to/or assist in the development of new qualifications in collaboration with Faculty teams and ACE.
• Collaborate with Faculty teams, and National and Campus portfolios to develop appropriate initiatives within the Faculty school based on current industry, academic, and research trends.
• Collaborate with ACE, Faculty teams, and National and Campus teams to design an appropriate teaching model for the Faculty to provide optimal delivery of curriculum, teaching, learning and assessment.
• Provide leadership, in collaboration with the Faculty teams, to plan relevant resource allocation and budgeting for all aspects of running successful qualifications.
• Collaborate with National portfolios and ACE to develop the National and Campus academic teams for Faculty-aligned academic excellence
• Coordinate Heads of Qualification (HoQ), Discipline Leads (DL), and Module Leads (ML) across the Faculty, in conjunction with the Deputy Dean (DD).
• Provide specialist knowledge and support to the national marketing team for the development of a marketing strategy for the Faculty.
• Actively teach or supervise to serve as an exemplar in best teaching practice including scholarly activities such as setting and marking of assessments
• Oversee all aspects of the successful execution of the functions of the Deputy Dean(s) and Faculty Manager(s).
• Drive and participate in the development and implementation of academic and operational policies, strategies, and governance processes for the Faculty/School, at national, regional, and campus levels, aligned with the long-term vision of the Institution as a quality higher education provider.
• Provide input into broader institutional policies, strategic planning, and governance processes.
• Ensure that academic programs meet accreditation standards and other regulatory requirements, in collaboration with AQA.
• Prepare reports and documentation for accreditation bodies and government agencies, in collaboration with AQA.
• Ensure that the Faculty pursues a formal programme of module and qualification review and implements the agreed outcomes.
• Contribute to the development and improvement of processes and systems where required.
• Contributes to the overall quality assurance processes of the Institution.
• Evaluate and oversee curricula aligned with institutional standards and student, societal, and market needs.
• In accordance with the authority and regulatory frameworks, drive improvements and development on modules or qualifications, consulting and communicating accordingly.
• Escalate governance and compliance concerns to the Registrar or Academic Manager as appropriate.
• Annually plan and review team workloads.
• Participate in the recruitment of new team members.
• Manage and quality assure the work of team members
• Support the development of the skills and capacity of team members, managing associated budgets and resource allocation.
• Execute line manager functions such as performance management, leave processes and staff expenses such as travel.
• Encourage and monitor participation towards research targets and postgraduate qualification (where appropriate).
• Assist and mentor academic team members with further studies where appropriate.

Scholarship and academic citizenship

• Develop and maintain strategic partnerships and network relationships across Higher Education Institutions (HEIs), industry, government, and others for ongoing quality development, alignment and responsiveness, student career and development opportunities, professional training, and sponsorships, amongst others.
• Facilitation of, and involvement in professional and scholarly bodies and activities (e.g. Law Society). Represent the institution on external partner faculty boards, committees and professional bodies.
• Serve as the key liaison with professional and academic partners in the cognate area.
• Develop and implement an internationalisation strategy for the development of collaborations and partnerships with international stakeholders.
• Facilitates compliance with partners and provider's policies, regulations and procedures.
• Develop a research profile for the Faculty, including leading and mentoring the research activities of relevant team members.
• Create a culture of research and scholarship in the Faculty/School.
• Actively contribute towards the research capacity and output of the Faculty/School and the institution.
• Build own scholarship profile through invited talks, peer review of conference papers and journal articles, external moderation and formal reviews of other academic institutions, and thought leadership/ opinion pieces.
• Promote excellence in research and scholarship amongst both students and staff.

Campus support
Implement formal communication structures within the Faculty/School, at a campus level.

• Actively teach a module(s) and/or present guest sessions and/or supervise research in a specialist field to serve as an exemplar of best practice.
• Work closely with the relevant campus Faculty representative(s) and support the development of that role.
• Support the campuses in the recruitment, selection, approval and development of the teaching team in the cognate area. Monitor the quality of appointments in the Faculty outside of the National.
• Guide teams on CESM approval of lecturers per module (Faculty specific).
• Support Registrar with Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) applications and credit transfers within the Faculty.
• Support the campus in the operation of bursary and exchange programmes (where applicable).
• Communicate directly, and facilitate communication from the Faculty teams, with the campuses on new developments, recommendations and trends and facilitate troubleshooting.
• Ensure collaboration with student experience teams to ensure the school is represented appropriately in campus initiatives.
• Provide support relating to issues and escalations that may impact the Faculty and the Institution

Research output

• Produce research outputs as agreed, aligning with career progression and postgraduate studies.
• This KPA can also be aligned to an increased focus on scholarship or community engagement, depending on Faculty context.

Minimum Educational Requirement:

• Masters
• Candidates holding a Masters qualification, will be required to commence Doctoral studies within 1 year of appointment
• Doctoral Degree (NQF Level 10) in a cognate field or PhD preferable

Minimum Work Requirement:

• 5-10 years Teaching and Learning (including research supervision) experience (preferably in higher education environment)
• 2 years industry or academic experience in relevant field
• 3 years Academic Management and / or curriculum development within a higher education environment.