Student Recruitment Officer (West Africa) at The University of Sheffield

Key responsibilities

• Provide market intelligence and input to design and deliver effective recruitment market plans and strategies to maximise student and revenue growth from Nigeria and Ghana. Including; Identifying new business opportunities including recruitment partnerships.
• Attend education fairs and recruitment events (both in-person and virtually) across Nigeria and Ghana to meet and advise prospective students and offer-holders. Promoting the full range of University’s programmes: undergraduate, postgraduate, English language and pathway programmes, and all support services the University has to offer.
• Carry out the day-to-day activity required to realize the objectives of this marketing and recruitment strategy: attending exhibitions, undertaking school and college visits, visiting agencies.
• Provide monthly visit reports, summarising key activities, observations and market intelligence learnt.
• Monitoring spend and delivering activities to deadlines and agreed budgets.
• Develop and maintain positive working relationships with key external stakeholders in Nigeria and Ghana: education agents, school and college counsellors, visa offices, government bodies, sponsorship bodies, accreditation bodies, alumni, etc.
• Develop and maintain positive working relationships with key internal stakeholders at the University; in particular, the International Recruitment team, Admissions staff and Academic colleagues as appropriate.
• Provide training and ongoing support to student recruitment agents.
• Organise and support recruitment-focused events like offer-holder briefings and predeparture events by booking venue(s), sending invitations, attending events across Nigeria and Ghana.
• Event Management – Organising and supporting agent workshops, recruitment events with schools, alumni and other stakeholders, University visits in Nigeria and Ghana.
• Support promotional campaigns such as promotion of scholarships to offer-holders through distribution of materials to relevant stakeholders.
• Conduct market research by gathering contact information for high school counsellors and competitor institution entry requirements from Nigeria and Ghana. Source, analyse provide West Africa market data.
• Work with the Africa / MENA team to develop business cases and budget plans for forthcoming years with a focus on impact and return on investment.
• Be responsible for planning your own travel schedule and the travel schedule of visiting colleagues as appropriate.
• Participate in the activities of the wider University and carry out other duties or project work as directed by the International Recruitment managers

Person Specification

• Educated to degree level or equivalent, preferably in the UK
• Understanding of the opportunities and challenges affecting the global higher education market.
• Demonstrable (5+ years) student recruitment experience of working in Nigeria, preferably to the UK.
• Strong relationship management skills with a focus on customer service.
• Proven experience of planning and implementing effective recruitment and conversion plans to maximise student growth from priority markets.
• Experience of managing an extensive agent network for student recruitment purposes.
• Understand the importance of service delivery and show a willingness to work with colleagues across the University to collectively work towards the strategic goals of the University.
• An understanding of the UK Student Visa , and how this translates in the effective and responsible recruitment practices.
• Highly developed written and oral communication and presentation skills, including use of digital and social media for business purposes.
• Good IT skills, with the ability to produce reports based on understanding and manipulation of complex statistical data.
• Creative and positive attitude, with the ability and confidence to respond quickly to meet changing customer and market demands.
• Strong organisational skills and the ability to prioritise demanding workloads and meet deadlines in a pressurised environment.
• Willingness to adopt a flexible working approach by working unsocial hours, weekends or occasional public holidays when required.
• Ability to undertake business-related travel in market on an unrestricted basis and undertake visits to the UK for training purposes.
• The candidate should possess a valid international passport.