Manager- Office of Graduate Studies at Strathmore University

Basic job summary

The purpose of this job is to co-ordinate all the operations of the Office of Graduate Studies. The Office of Graduate Studies provides University-level administrative oversight to ensure the quality and integrity of all graduate programmes.

Duties & Responsibilities:

• Responsible for quality assurance in the Office (ensure procedures are current and uploaded, coordinating the quality audits);
• Follow-up correspondence with supervisors and examiners once approved and appointed;
• Prepare the supervisors and examiners appointment/contract letters;
• Updating the database of all supervisors and examiners of graduate programmes;
• Receiving all dissertations and thesis for examination and onward transmission to the relevant examiners;
• Receiving examiners’ reports for all thesis and dissertations;
• Organising oral defence sessions in liaison with the Schools (including organising travel and accommodation for external examiners);
• Following up with supervisors to ensure thesis that have been passed with corrections are corrected and submitted to the Office of Graduate studies;
• Coordinating the processing of payments to all examiners and supervisors;
• Collaborating with the marketing department to market graduate programmes;
• Review the Office website monthly to ensure the information is current and accurate;
• Supervise the administrative staff members attached to the Office and ensure they carry out their duties as agreed;
• Carrying out customer satisfaction surveys with students annually;
• Organize promotional activities to increase admission statistics e.g., Masters Open Day;
• Assist in carrying the oral interviews when called upon;
• Coordinate the PhD admissions: process the enquiries & applications into the PhD programme with Schools;
• Liaise with the Admissions office to prepare admission letters for PhD applicants;
• Ensure each student has a personal file once admitted;
• Organising orientation sessions for new graduate students;
• Follow up on the progress reports and flag any issues for the attention of the Director;
• Ensure invoicing of all PhD students at the different milestones;
• Coordinate the graduation process for the Master’s and PhD students;
• Secretary to the PhD oral defence sessions (both for proposals and final thesis examination);
• Organising the logistics for the Board of Graduate Studies meetings and taking the meeting minutes;
• Any other responsibilities as may be assigned by the Director.

Minimum Academic Qualifications:

• Have a Master’s degree
• Professional course in leadership will be an added advantage

Experience:

• At least five years’ administration experience in a university set-up

Competencies and Attributes

• Good people skills
• Good Communication skills,
• Strong analytical skills,
• Attention to detail and strong problem-solving skills
• A team player
• Adaptable and Flexible
• High ethical standards and professionalism, including ability to handle confidential information
• Continuously seek to improve self
• Innovative & Self-driven
• Technically capable to use collaboration software tools effectively (especially Moodle & Spreadsheets)