Change your career, change lives

The Open University is the UK’s largest university, a world leader in flexible part-time education combining a mission to widen access to higher education with research excellence, transforming lives through education. Find out more about us and our mission by watching this short video (you will be taken to YouTube by clicking this link).

About the Role

The purpose of this role is to provide information and advice to students in regards to their fees, payment and funding methods, as well as assessing applications for support or to understand their fee eligibility. The role holders provide excellent customer service by telephone and email, and are adept at working across systems to provide support and maintain student records accurately and with attention to detail, while complying with Data Protection Act (DPA) requirements and maintaining confidentiality.

The roles will be based within the Student Administration Service, as part of the Student Support Hub, and will work alongside colleagues to provide support for students looking to understand their fee eligibility, apply for financial support, make an application for funding and help to maintain accurate student and funding records.

There are 3 permanent roles available, based on the Financial Support and Fees and Pricing teams, and 5 fixed term roles (until 31 July 2028) as part of a new team that will support the introduction of the Lifelong Learning Entitlement, which will replace Student Loans from February 2027.

Key Responsibilities

• Checks applicants meet the eligibility criteria for various types of Financial Support, advising where necessary. Also ensuring those studying remain eligible through areas such as, but not limited to, residency changes.
• Adhere to all SLA requirements for telephony and administrational work, including but not limited to responding to emails and service requests ensuring the delivery of an exceptional service to students.
• Answers enquiries and gives advice on a wide range of student financial support matters for which a detailed, comprehensive, and up to date knowledge of systems and University academic and administrative policies and regulations is required.
• Contacting Student Loans Company to discuss student records.
• Submitting requests to the Student Loans Company to inform them of a student’s change of circumstances.
• Ensuring all legal documents, such as Visas, are up to date.
• Update the relevant database to accurately reflect student awards and outstanding information.
• Ensure all personal or sensitive information that you deal with via the phone, incoming post, email, or any other form of communication is kept secure.
• Attends and actively participates in team meetings.
• Demonstrates an understanding of the University’s Equal Opportunities Policy and applies appropriately.
• Contributes to business process changes, making recommendations for changes that bring about more effective working practices/improved customer service.

About You

Essential:

• Experience of delivering against and exceeding service levels and key performance indicators, displaying the ability to work under pressure and to strict deadlines
• Experience working in an office or call centre environment and can demonstrate a high level of accuracy, literacy, numeracy, adaptability, and organisation skills
• Experience of using Microsoft Office software including Word, Excel, and Outlook
• Able to demonstrate good interpersonal and communication skills
• Ability to overcome difficult situations and provide solutions for our students
• Ability to demonstrate effective telephone techniques such active listening and, excellent questioning skills
• Ability to absorb and retain product knowledge and have a positive approach to learning and development
• Ability to carry out the role in a way that is consistent with equality legislation and University policies.

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.

Work location

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 would expect office attendance to be full-time during the first four weeks for onboarding and training purposes, followed by approximately one day per month thereafter.

Next steps in the Recruitment process

Early closing date notification

While most roles will remain open until the advertised closing date, applications may be reviewed on an ongoing basis. In some cases, vacancies may close earlier if a sufficient number of suitable applications have been received and equality impacts have been appropriately considered. All roles will remain advertised for a minimum of one week before any early closure is implemented.

If you have started an application or were in the process of applying when the advert closed, we encourage you to get in touch. We are committed to understanding individual circumstances and can offer further support where needed, including reasonable adjustments for applicants with protected characteristics.

How to apply

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

• CV
• Supporting statement, up to 1,000 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.