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About the Role

This role plays a central part in supporting the delivery of the University’s Mental Health and Wellbeing Strategy for students and staff. While data analysis remains a key component, the role goes far beyond numbers—bringing together people, insights, and actions to drive meaningful change.

You’ll coordinate activity across departments, encourage engagement, and ensure contributions to the strategy are captured, analysed, and communicated effectively. You’ll be the person who nudges, reminds, and brings people together creating a shared sense of purpose and progress working with the Strategic Mental Health Lead and university colleagues.

Working across Student Support and Data & Student Analytics, you’ll help shape how we measure success, tell the story of our impact, and build communities of practice that foster collaboration and innovation.

Key Responsibilities

• Coordinate contributions to the Mental Health and Wellbeing Strategy across teams, ensuring timely updates, shared learning, recommendations and consistent messaging.
• Analyse and interpret data (quantitative and qualitative) to assess progress, identify gaps, and inform future priorities.
• Write clear, engaging reports and updates for internal and external audiences, including senior leadership.
• Develop dashboards and visual tools that communicate insights and support decision-making.
• Build and support communities of practice around mental health and wellbeing, encouraging cross-functional collaboration.
• Encourage and support staff to engage with the strategy—whether through submitting updates, attending events, or sharing good practice.
• Manage requests for data and reporting, ensuring quality, relevance, and timeliness.
• Provide training and guidance on using data tools and interpreting insights.
• Maintain a strong focus on equity, inclusion, and accessibility in all aspects of the role.

About You

Essential:

• Demonstrable understanding of both data analysis and mental health in a higher education context.
• Proven ability to work collaboratively across teams and departments to deliver shared goals.
• Evidence of meaningful contribution to cross-functional projects, particularly those involving wellbeing, strategy, or student/staff support.
• Skilled in aligning strategic initiatives with measurable outcomes, particularly in student welfare and mental health contexts.
• Able to monitor and assess the impact of initiatives as well as identifying areas for further improvement. 
• Active involvement in the development and reporting of KPIs and success measures aligned to the MHWB strategic plan and tracking delivery milestones, short-term outcomes, and long-term institutional impact.
• Able to prioritise effectively, meeting deadlines and dealing with competing demands.
• Experience of working in a support role that required independence and initiative to drive momentum and delivery across multiple teams.
• Ability to interpret complex data (quantitative and qualitative) and translate findings into clear, actionable recommendations.
• A genuine commitment to enhancing the University’s approach to mental health and wellbeing for both students and staff.
• Proficiency in using data analysis and visualisation tools (e.g. SQL,  Power BI, Tableau) to communicate insights effectively.
• A strong commitment to working inclusively and equitably with a diverse student and staff population.
• A track record of research, evaluation, or knowledge exchange relevant to mental health, wellbeing, or strategic development, commensurate with the level of the role.

Desirable:

• Experience with impact frameworks, logic models, or theory of change.
• Familiarity with frameworks such as UUK StepChange, Student Mental Health Charter.
• Knowledgeable in ensuring compliance with Office for Students conditions, including access and participation plans, student outcomes, and mental health support.
• Experience working within regulatory frameworks such as Office for Students. 
• Growing Knowledge and/or demonstratable experience in Artificial Intelligence.

Support with your application

If you have any questions, or need support or adjustments relating to your application, the recruitment process, or the role, please contact us on 01908 541111 or email careers@open.ac.uk quoting the advert reference number.

What's in it for you?

At The Open University, we offer a range of benefits to recognise and reward great work, alongside policies and flexible working that contribute towards a great work life balance. Get all the details of what benefits we offer by visiting our Staff Benefits page (clicking this link will open a new window).

Flexible working

We are open to discussions about flexible working. Whether it’s a job share, part time, compressed hours or another working arrangement. Please reach out to us to discuss what works best for you.

It is anticipated that a hybrid working pattern can be adopted for this role, where you can work from home and the office. However, as this role is contractually aligned to our Milton Keynes office it is expected that some attendance in the office will be required when necessary and in response to business needs. We’d expect this to be approximately once per week.

Next steps in the Recruitment process

Interviews are anticipated to take place 7/8 January 2026. Interviews will consist of a panel interview and presentation. 

Early closing date notification

We may close this job advert earlier than the published closing date where a satisfactory number of applications are received. We would therefore encourage early applications.

How to apply

To apply for this role please submit the following as separate documents:

• CV
• Supporting statement, up to 1,250 words, you should set out in your statement why you’re interested in this role and provide examples of where your skills and experience meet the required competencies for this role as detailed in the job and person specification.

You can view your progress and application communications when you are logged into our recruitment system.  Please check your spam/junk folders if you do not receive associated email updates.