Head of Student Communications - (8047)

As a great university in a great global city, we advance knowledge to benefit society and make higher education accessible to those with the passion to succeed. We bring change through outstanding research and excellent education, evidenced by our gold status in the Teaching Excellence Framework and 90% of our research impact rated as world-leading.

Join us as Head of Student Communications and share your passion to succeed with a world-leader.  

We're looking for a highly experienced communications professional ready to take on a challenging and rewarding role in building a sense of belonging and community with our current students through excellent, high-quality communications.

You will be passionate about enhancing the student experience and keeping our community informed and engaged, driving positive advocacy and satisfaction.

This role is part of the Communications and Engagement leadership team, within the wider External Relations directorate. You will help to develop and deliver the student communications strategy with our body of over 43,000 current students, supporting our goal to be recognised as the university of choice and enhancing our outstanding student experience.

You will:

• Lead, manage and implement the multi-channel student communications strategy for the University to ensure coordinated and effective campaigns and messaging throughout the student experience lifecycle (from enrolment to graduation).
• Work in partnership and build positive relationships with key stakeholders from across the University, acting as advisor and communications lead.
• Support on issues, reputational and incident communications management.
• Manage a team responsible for student communications, including generating content for multi-media channels, social media, digital and other engagement activities.

As a great university, we offer outstanding career opportunities to great people. You'll be an experienced, innovative, proactive and solutions-driven communications expert. You're committed to creating the highest quality communications and driving audience engagement across a wide range media, communication channels, events and activities.

You will bring:

• Strong, adaptable all round communication skills.
• Significant knowledge and experience in executing integrated communications plans across multi-media channels using powerful and creative content.
• Proven ability to lead and motivate a team of communications professionals, as well as developing effective working relationships and persuasively communicate at all levels.
• Sound experience of managing crisis or incident communications.
• A solid understanding of the key issues within higher education, and the context in which the University operates.

You will receive:

• An excellent reward package that provides a rounded working-life balance alongside the support necessary to take your ambitions to the next level. This includes a starting salary of c.£57,000 (increasing on 1 March 2025), generous pension benefits and 35 days of annual leave per year, plus 8 bank holiday days.
• As a member of the Communications and Engagement team you'll be able to work in a variable hybrid way, with flexibility as needed to attend meetings and events. You'll be expected to provide out of hours support as needed, with an on standby on call rota provided across the team.

To learn more about this exciting opportunity and benefits we offer, please read the JD and Candidate Pack provided below.

Make a name for yourself and our university in a meaningful career with real-world impact!

Manchester Met University is committed to creating an intentionally inclusive culture of belonging that promotes equity and celebrates diversity. We understand the importance of having a diverse workforce and the benefits it can bring to ensuring diversity of thought and innovation in everything we do. We, therefore, encourage applications from people from ethnic minority groups, disabled people and people who identify as LGBTQIA+.

Recruitment Agencies: The University has engaged an approved list of recruitment agencies to support the recruitment of its vacancies from time to time. The University does not accept speculative applications from recruitment agencies outside of this list.