Position: Director Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland
Location: We have offices in Gloucester and Glasgow, as well as offering employees the opportunity to work flexibly from home
Job Type: Full-time, permanent or One Year secondment in first instance
Hours: 35 hours per week, flexible working available
Salary: circa £70K per annum, dependent upon knowledge, skills and experience plus excellent benefits
Closing date: midnight on Monday 16th January
The Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education (QAA) is the independent body entrusted with monitoring and advising on standards and quality in UK higher education. We work with a range of experts and the UK higher education community to ensure that the three million students working towards a UK qualification get the education they are entitled to expect. We ensure that students are directly involved in all aspects of our work.
Our activities cover all four nations of the UK, recognising that distinct approaches have been taken to the common objective of ensuring and advancing educational quality.
This role is pivotal in QAA’s work with students, governments and institutions in assuring and enhancing quality in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. The role also coordinates our extensive engagement in the Bologna Process, including provision of advice to our member institutions and policy advice to governments across the UK.
This is an exciting opportunity to support the strategic direction of QAA’s role in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, setting and evaluating standards of delivery and taking responsibility for performance, ensuring high levels of trust and satisfaction of stakeholders in these nations. There are ongoing reviews of post-compulsory education in both Wales and Scotland, and QAA wants to ensure that it is best positioned to support these policy directions.
Accountable to the Executive Director of Operations (Deputy Chief Executive), the main responsibilities will include:
- Engagement with institutions in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, including all aspects of quality assurance and enhancement, ensuring QAA’s unique contribution is promoted and understood by key stakeholder groups.
- Leading the delivery of our quality assurance and enhancement activity across Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, ensuring it is of the highest quality and credibility.
- Reviewing our work against the outcome of the tertiary education developments in Scotland and Wales to ensure that it is relevant, progressive and of high value to providers
- Engagement in the application of the UK Quality Code for Higher Education and the European Standards and Guidelines for Quality Assurance (ESG) to ensure QAA’s work is in line with European expectations and fully accounts for the needs of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
- Ensure the QAA Executive, Board and relevant staff are fully aware of political and legislative developments in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, providing advice and drafting responses to consultations as required.
- As a member of the QAA Senior Leadership Team, develop and manage strategic relationships with key stakeholders within the organisation and across the nations including the appropriate sector organisations, governments, representative bodies and professional bodies.
We are particularly interested in attracting individuals with higher education, further education and/or quality assurance and enhancement experience or exposure, who are committed to the mission and values of QAA and who bring the skills and experience required to ensure QAA delivers its strategic aims.
The successful candidate will have experience of working at a senior management level, developing and implementing organisation strategy and objectives, perhaps with responsibility for higher and further education quality assurance and enhancement. You must possess strong leadership and budget management skills.
For a confidential discussion about this role please contact Debbie Shields, Kate Kennedy or Lauryn Pringle at our recruitment partners, Aspen People, on 0141 212 7555.
Closing date for applications is midnight on Monday 16th January.
To apply for this role, please submit your CV with a short covering letter. We welcome applications in Welsh and can also interview in Welsh if this is your preference, please let us know in your cover letter.
QAA is fully committed to everyday flexibility and has adopted a culture based on trust and fairness that genuinely encourages QAA and individuals to thrive. Providing that business needs are met, employees should normally be able to work where and when they want. Many of our employees work flexibly in different ways, including part-time and compressed hours. Please let us know about the flexibility you need in your application.
QAA recognises the positive benefits of equality, diversity and inclusion. Our aim is to be truly representative of all sections of society, and for employees to feel respected, free to be themselves no matter what their identity or background and able to give their best. We value the differences that a variety of backgrounds, experiences, perspectives and skills brings and strongly encourage suitably qualified applicants to apply and join us.