Senior Officer, Academic Development and Operations (InfoService)

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Position Purpose: 

Serve as a first point of contact for students by receiving, acknowledging, anticipating and responding to various student requests and by ensuring above average client service in order to attract, retain and maintain the student population rate in all programs of study. Execute administrative tasks, such as evaluating requests, making recommendations, approving certain requests and providing follow-ups with students, colleagues and other faculties. As an ambassador for the University and the Faculty, attend graduation ceremonies and various events to promote the University of Ottawa and the Faculty’s services.

In this role, your responsibilities will include: 

• Assess student needs: Evaluate student needs by analyzing, identifying, interpreting and translating student needs to determine which policies and procedures need to be activated.
• Plan interventions: Support the planning process for student interventions by providing a diagnosis and recommendations to address student issues.
• Execute interventions: Assist to the implementation process by providing relevant information to inform the approach for each intervention.
• Follow-ups: Perform follow-ups for student files to facilitate meeting administrative and academic timelines.
• Direct students to the appropriate authority: Redirect students to the appropriate services to ensure they receive proper support to help them pursue their studies.
• Admissions: Analyze student files with conditional acceptance and/or equivalences, so the Academic Development and Student Retention Specialist can follow up with these students. Monitor these files to ensure that administrative and academic deadlines are respected.
• Modification to program of study: Serve as a first point of contact for students by receiving, acknowledging and taking action on student requests for modification to their selected program of study.
• Course selection and registration application process: Serve as a first point of contact for students by receiving and acknowledging student requests for course selection and registration.
• Determine the eligibility of the request. Based on eligibility, approve course selection for first year students and special students and perform the necessary steps to finalize requests.
• Academic performance: Evaluate files pertaining to academic performance and taking all necessary steps to populate relevant systems.
• Retention: Identify students in difficulty and students who might potentially experience academic difficulties by analyzing academic performance and other relevant data (ex. absenteeism rates). Share information with colleagues to alert them of potential student intervention opportunities.
• Student mobility: Serve as a first point of contact for student by receiving and acknowledging student requests pertaining to student mobility (ex. permission letters, agreements, etc.). Determine the students’ eligibility and coordinate the course selection to facilitate the transition to other programs and/or institutions.
• Graduation: Conduct a primary evaluation of files while respecting the policies and processes to identify and prepare files for graduation. Attend the graduation ceremony as an ambassador of the University.
• Other programs and associations: Determine the students’ eligibility for programs and services. Closely collaborate with other associations, such as COOP and Immersion to ensure the quality and relevance of services.
• Course offer: Coordinate the course selection process such as maintaining course sequences, ensuring the course schedule is available on SIS and reconciling enrolment limits (ex. classroom capacity versus registration and demand rates) and necessary activities related to these enrolment limits. Ascertain that follow-up actions are initiated within defined timelines to increase positive student experience. Establish and maintain the list of courses available to students with special needs and distribute to relevant offices and individuals.
• Exam management: Participate to the coordination of exams by making sure that exam content remains confidential according to the policies and by organizing the schedule for exam supervisors.
• Deferred and reprise exam management: Determine the eligibility of requests and approve according to defined policies. Follow up with students and the appropriate departments to obtain or provide official documentation.
• Recruitment activities: As an ambassador for the University, promote the University of Ottawa as well as its programs and services during commercial fairs and recruitment events.
• Public relations: Represent the faculty and the University of Ottawa during events and receptions by connecting with students and participants.

What You Will Bring: 

• Knowledge of administration usually acquired through postsecondary studies and several years of experience in a similar role.
• Knowledge of academic programs at the high school, college, undergraduate and postgraduate levels.
• Bilingualism: French and English (spoken and written), to be considered for this position, candidates must be rated at the Low Advanced proficiency level or higher for both oral comprehension and reading comprehension in their second official language. The rating is determined by a proficiency test designed by the Official Languages and Bilingualism Institute.
• Knowledge of and experience interpreting, communicating and applying procedures, policies and methods.
• Experience researching and analyzing data as well as creating administrative and statistical reports.
• Experience in problem solving and decision-making.
• Experience providing client service• Experience implementing strategies and activity plans for students.
• Experience with Microsoft Office Suite (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Access), word processing, Windows and Internet.
• Capacity to deal with conflicting priorities and respect strict deadlines in a fast paced environment.
• Organizational and analytical skills, excellent judgment and attention to detail.
• Listening skills and strong work ethics

Key Competencies at uOttawa:
Here are the required competencies for all or our employees at uOttawa: 

Planning: Organize in time a series of actions or events in order to realize an objective or a project. Plan and organize own work and priorities in regular daily activities.
Initiative: Demonstrate creativity and initiative to suggest improvements and encourage positive results. Is proactive and self-starting. Show availability and willingness to go above and beyond whenever it is possible.
Client Service Orientation: Help or serve others to meet their needs. This implies anticipating and identifying the needs of internal and external clients and finding solutions on how to meet them.
Teamwork and Cooperation: Cooperate and work well with other members of the team to reach common goal(s). Accept and give constructive feedback. Able to adjust own behaviour to reach the goals of the team.

The University of Ottawa embraces diversity and inclusion in the workplace. We are passionate about our people and committed to employment equity. We foster a culture of respect, teamwork and inclusion, where collaboration, innovation, and creativity fuel our quest for research and teaching excellence. While all qualified persons are invited to apply, we welcome applications from qualified Indigenous persons, racialized persons, persons with disabilities, women and LGBTQIA2S+ persons. The University is committed to creating and maintaining an accessible, barrier-free work environment. The University is also committed to working with applicants with disabilities requesting accommodation during the recruitment, assessment and selection processes. Applicants with disabilities may contact hrtalentmanagement@uottawa.ca to communicate the accommodation need. All qualified candidates are encouraged to apply; however, Canadians and permanent residents will be given priority.

Note: if this is a union position: The hiring process will be governed by the current collective agreement related to the union affiliation noted above; you can click here to find out more.

If this is a front-line position with responsibilities to interact with students, selected candidates must be rated at the Low Advanced proficiency level or higher for both oral comprehension and reading comprehension in their second official language. The rating is determined by a proficiency test designed by the Official Languages and Bilingualism Institute.

Prior to May 1, 2022, the University required all students, faculty, staff, and visitors (including contractors) to be fully vaccinated against Covid-19 as defined in Policy 129 – Covid-19 Vaccination. This policy was suspended effective May 1, 2022 but may be reinstated at any point in the future depending on public health guidelines and the recommendations of experts.