Office of the Independent Adjudicator

Opportunities for Assistant Adjudicators

We operate the independent student complaints scheme covering universities in England and Wales under the Higher Education Act 2004. Our office is based in Reading and we are a registered charity and a member of the British and Irish Ombudsman Association (BIOA). We deal with complaints from individual students and have a wide remit covering acts/omissions of a university. The quality of our service to our stakeholders is our first priority and every employee plays a key role in delivering this.

Assistant Adjudicators and Assistant Case-handlers are required to manage a demanding, complex and varied workload of cases whilst also contributing to the Office’s outreach work and strategic objectives. You will gather, analyse and evaluate evidence with a pragmatic and strategic mind and prepare and present decisions that are of excellent quality. We have two dedicated case-handling teams. The Assessment Team deals with the front end of the complaint handling process and focuses on the early resolution of complaints through conciliation and the use of our Fast Track procedure. The Review Team focuses on the more complex or entrenched cases requiring our Full Review process.

If you think you might have the relevant skills and background, please refer to the relevant job description, person specification and case-handler competencies below.

• Do you have the resilience to work in a demanding and high volume complaints handling organisation?
• Do you have a range of analytical and assessment skills that will help you to analyse and evaluate evidence in cases?
• Do you enjoy writing and have excellent written and oral communication as well as report writing skills?
• Do you have the confidence to make difficult decisions quickly and autonomously but know when it is appropriate to seek guidance?
• Do you enjoy working as part of a team?
• Do you have an interest and awareness of current issues facing the higher education sector?
• Do you have excellent time managing skills?
• Are you able to deal with sensitive issues in a professional manner?

If you have answered yes to the above questions this could be the position for you.

A background in adjudication and/or legal investigation would be an advantage as would experience of the Higher Education sector.

We welcome diversity amongst our staff to reflect the nature of independent adjudication, our users and stakeholders. Therefore we would particularly welcome applications from people from Black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds and people with disabilities, who are under-represented in our workforce. We are committed to Equality of Opportunity.

We offer the following salary packages and benefits:

• £35,453.93 for Assistant Adjudicators and £25,177.43 for Assistant Case-handlers
• 35 hour working week with the opportunity for flexible working for permanent staff
• Generous holiday entitlement of 28 days (rising to 33 days) plus bank holidays
• Gym membership for permanent staff
• Attractive USS pension scheme

The closing date for the receipt of applications is Thursday 9 February 2012.

Please state in your covering letter which job you are applying for.

Assistant Adjudicator Job Description
Case-handler Competencies

Opportunities for Assistant Case-handlers

We operate the independent student complaints scheme covering universities in England and Wales under the Higher Education Act 2004. Our office is based in Reading and we are a registered charity and a member of the British and Irish Ombudsman Association (BIOA). We deal with complaints from individual students and have a wide remit covering acts/omissions of a university. The quality of our service to our stakeholders is our first priority and every employee plays a key role in delivering this.

Assistant Adjudicators and Assistant Case-handlers are required to manage a demanding, complex and varied workload of cases whilst also contributing to the Office’s outreach work and strategic objectives. You will gather, analyse and evaluate evidence with a pragmatic and strategic mind and prepare and present decisions that are of excellent quality. We have two dedicated case-handling teams. The Assessment Team deals with the front end of the complaint handling process and focuses on the early resolution of complaints through conciliation and the use of our Fast Track procedure. The Review Team focuses on the more complex or entrenched cases requiring our Full Review process.

If you think you might have the relevant skills and background, please refer to the relevant job description, person specification and case-handler competencies below.

• Do you have the resilience to work in a demanding and high volume complaints handling organisation?
• Do you have a range of analytical and assessment skills that will help you to analyse and evaluate evidence in cases?
• Do you enjoy writing and have excellent written and oral communication as well as report writing skills?
• Do you have the confidence to make difficult decisions quickly and autonomously but know when it is appropriate to seek guidance?
• Do you enjoy working as part of a team?
• Do you have an interest and awareness of current issues facing the higher education sector?
• Do you have excellent time managing skills?
• Are you able to deal with sensitive issues in a professional manner?

If you have answered yes to the above questions this could be the position for you.

A background in adjudication and/or legal investigation would be an advantage as would experience of the Higher Education sector.

We welcome diversity amongst our staff to reflect the nature of independent adjudication, our users and stakeholders. Therefore we would particularly welcome applications from people from Black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds and people with disabilities, who are under-represented in our workforce. We are committed to Equality of Opportunity.

We offer the following salary packages and benefits:

• £25,177.43 for Assistant Case-handlers and £35,453.93 for Assistant Adjudicators
• 35 hour working week with the opportunity for flexible working for permanent staff
• Generous holiday entitlement of 28 days (rising to 33 days) plus bank holidays
• Gym membership for permanent staff
• Attractive USS pension scheme

The closing date for the receipt of applications is Thursday 9 February 2012.

Please state in your covering letter which job you are applying for.

Assistant Case-handler Job Description
Case-handler Competencies

Opportunity for a Data & Communications Officer

We operate the independent student complaints scheme covering universities in England and Wales under the Higher Education Act 2004. Our office is based in Reading and we are a registered charity and a member of the British and Irish Ombudsman Association (BIOA). We deal with complaints from individual students and have a wide remit covering acts/omissions of a university. The quality of our service to our stakeholders is our first priority and every employee plays a key role in delivering this.

The Data & Communications Officer will be required to collate and digest information relating to complaints about individual institutions for internal and external use. They will also need to produce and analyse statistical information.

If you think you might have the relevant skills and background, please refer to the relevant job description and person specification on our website.

• Are you able to collate and digest information from different sources?
• Are you able to interpret data and produce graphs?
• Are you confident in proofreading?
• Are you able to ‘think outside the box’?
• Do you have the confidence to make decisions autonomously but know when it is appropriate to seek guidance?
• Do you enjoy working as part of a team?
• Do you have an interest and awareness of current issues facing the higher education sector?
• Do you have excellent time managing skills?
• Are you able to deal with sensitive issues in a professional manner?

If you have answered yes to the above questions this could be the position for you.

We welcome diversity amongst our staff to reflect the nature of independent adjudication, our users and stakeholders. Therefore we would particularly welcome applications from people from Black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds and people with disabilities, who are under-represented in our workforce. We are committed to Equality of Opportunity.

We offer the following salary packages and benefits:

• £25,177.43 pa
• 35 hour working week with the opportunity for flexible working for permanent staff
• Generous holiday entitlement of 28 days (rising to 33 days) plus bank holidays
• Gym membership for permanent staff
• Attractive USS pension scheme

The closing date for the receipt of applications is Thursday 9 February 2012.

Data & Communications Officer Job Description