KATLEGO MARUMO

• Lead, coach, and develop a team of Student Relations Specialists, ensuring high performance, service excellence, and consistent application of institutional policies and procedures.
• Coordinate team operations, including workload allocation, shift planning, leave management, performance monitoring, and operational support, to maintain service continuity.
• Deliver onboarding, training, and development initiatives to strengthen team capability, and enhance customer service standards.
• Plan and facilitate student information sessions, orientation programmes, and engagement initiatives on academic policies, institutional systems, assessment schedules, and student lifecycle processes.
• Drive proactive student engagement through classroom presentations, awareness campaigns, and cross-functional communication initiatives to improve the overall student experience.
• Manage complex and escalated student cases, ensuring timely resolution, appropriate risk management, and escalation to senior stakeholders where required.
• Monitor service delivery against Service Level Agreements (SLAs), analyse query trends, identify operational bottlenecks, and implement process improvements to enhance efficiency.
• Collaborate with academic and professional support teams to deliver accurate, timely, and student-centred services across the institution.
• Produce operational reports and provide management with insights, recommendations, and risk assessments to support informed decision-making and continuous improvement.
• Conduct quality assurance reviews to ensure compliance with institutional policies, operational procedures, customer service standards, and the Protection of Personal Information Act (POPIA).
• Maintain accurate records of student interactions within institutional systems, ensuring data integrity, audit readiness, and effective case management.
• Foster a collaborative, student-focused culture by building strong stakeholder relationships, and promoting continuous improvement in service delivery and operational effectiveness.

Quality Assurance.

• Manages the academic delivery on campus in collaboration with the Head of Academics.
• Oversees the implementation of academic and related policies.
• Ensure compliance with policies and other regulations within all areas of academic operations.
• Maintains and develops relationships with all stakeholders, including students, parents, lecturers, and other staff, and ensures resolution of queries within a committed time frame.
• Approves all departmental documentation distributed to students and external stakeholders in line with the approved process of the brand.

Operational programme management.

• Work closely with the head of student services and the head of academics in all areas of responsibility to maintain open communication regarding programme delivery, and the student and lecturers' experience. E.g. At risk meetings.
• Highlight any challenges found in relation to programme material and assessments, with the outcome of achieving an improved student and lecturer experience.
• Ensure proper sign-off for all students eligible for graduation in line with the required standards for the qualification.

Student Support

• Ensures the operational needs of a student are handled timeously and are responded to by the relevant academic operations staff in accordance with student centred approach
• Represent the academic operations department on the student committees
• Responsible for student retention in collaboration with head: academics

Independent contractors (Lecturers and Invigilators)

• Management of any liaison with the academic team regarding any lecturer concerns which may arise from student consultations
• Ensures all lecturer requirements are met regarding the operational delivery of programmes in conjunction with the various centres of excellence.
• Work closely with the Head: academics in ensuring lecturer allocations are completed timeously so the timetabling process may begin in accordance with the timelines that support timetabling project in line with programme start dates.
• Holds the role of 2nd line approver for all invigilator claims/timesheet.

Departmental management

• Manages operational reviews and guides the process of identifying and correcting areas of operational risk
• Coordinates the IIE requests, implementation of policy changes
• Assist head: Academics in compilation of the academic operations budget regarding allocations of groups on relation to campus targets and the accommodation schedule.
• Responsible for campus compliance in respect of group internal audits or any other audits which may presents operational compliance and manage improvement plan
• Performs general management duties including managing staff performance, overtime, staff leave and staff morale
• Recruits, trains and develops specific skills required in the different centres of excellence and student reception
• Manages academic operations meetings including drawing up agendas and chairing academic operations meetings
• Manages focus group sessions with different centres, where challenges and improvements to existing processes are discussed.
• Responsible for the efficient running and service delivery of various centres of excellence as well as to ensure that all student queries are resolved in a timeous manner
• Ensures all policy updates are communicated to the student relations centres and that students are informed accordingly.
• Responsible for providing training and onboarding of new and existing staff within the centre of excellence
• Recruits staff for all centre of excellence where applicable.
• Implements strategies to accommodate growth, improve student experience and eliminates risks within academic operations
• Ensures compliance to the protection of personal information act (POPIA) legislation relevant to the academic operations department.
• Acts as investigating officer in investigating any complaints of disciplinary nature

Quality Assurance

• Managing the implementation of admission process
• Ensures compliance within all areas of academic operations
• Maintain and develop relationships with all stakeholders, students, parents, lectures and other departmental staff
• Ensures timeous resolution of queries
• Approves all departmental documentation and communication distributed to students and external stakeholders in line with the approval process.

Academic Operations Management

Admissions

• Ensures that admission requirements are adhered to, and quality assures the respective workflows on campus.
• Monitors conditional admissions and ensures that criteria are met timeously
• Manages the admissions of international students, which includes any appropriate conditions.
• Ensures academic operations team is compliant in the implementation of the admission criteria.
• Complies with the implementation of the rules of progression for completion of qualifications, which includes management of phase out qualifications.

Assessments

• Ensures the compliance of the assessment policy and assessment management for the campus, which includes managing any anomalies or exceptions.
• Manages timeframes of release of results to students and responsible for escalating any exceptions, which includes students’ eligibility for the various assessment sittings.
• Ensures that student records from admissions, assessments and certification are accurate and queries resolved timeously
• Manages the assessment moderation process.

Certification

• Ensures that all criteria have been met by the student before the compilation of the graduation list.
• Ensures that the graduation lists for the campus is signed off as per the certification timeframes.

Programme Management

• Ensures that each programme have their class timetable loaded on the Student Information System.
• Ensures that all students and lecturers have their assessment timetables.
• Responsible for supporting the academic team in managing the logistics associated with qualifications.
• Responsible for risk mitigation and ensures immediate escalation when implementation is not according to policy.

Personnel Management

• Recruitment of new personnel
• Management of staff, i.e., performance, KPA reviews, training and development, leave and any other requirements.

General Management

• Oversees the customer service functions for all full-time students.
• Ensure all student queries are resolved.
• Assist the teams with all Internal and external audits
• Manage, motivate and develop operations teams in their duties
• Chairs academic operations campus meetings

Academic Administration

• Assist with tasks that relate to applications and admissions for undergraduate and postgraduate students.
• Manage all administrative processes that relate to postgraduate students (from application to graduation).
• Provide academic advice.
• Pull data from the system for analysis of student record for purposes of enrolment, appeals, etc.
• Capture information pertaining to research outputs on RIMS.
• Provide administrative editorial assistance to the Editor of Communitas.
• Assist with verification of class and examination timetables for the Department.
• Liaise with other departments in the Faculty of The Humanities as well as support service departments such as Examination Administration.

Financial Administration

• Manage departmental entities.
• Compile a report on departmental entities and estimate future expenditure.
• Request and appraise quotations.
• Capture requisitions and follow up on their approval.
• Receive purchase orders and forward them to suppliers.
• Receive ordered goods and equipment.
• Submit invoices to the Finance Department for payment of service providers.
• Manage ad-hoc claims of the department.
• Capture, report and follow up on job requests for maintenance and repairs when necessary.
• Purchase and order office supplies, stationery and equipment.
• Generate cost centre reports for departmental entities and check on a weekly and/ or monthly basis.
• Monitor progress of encumbrances for all departmental entities and follow up on outstanding invoices and payments.

Stakeholder Administration

• Perform administrative tasks that relate to the Department's Industry Advisory Council.
• Perform administrative tasks that relate to the Department's marketing efforts, including:
• Maintaining the Department's webpage in accordance with the requirements of the Faculty of The Humanities.
• Assuming responsibility for arrangements for open days and career days
• Coordinating departmental and programme marketing material.

General Administration

• Manage general office administration and operations, including:
• Handling general enquiries.
• Arranging events within the department.
• Handling travel and accommodation arrangements.
• Overseeing, order and distribute office supplies, stationery and equipment.
• Keeping updated record of all leave, special leave and sick leave.
• Keeping updated asset register.
• Provide administrative support to the Department's academic staff.

Human Resource Administration

• Assist with the administration of contract appointments and other HR-related matters.
• Act as team leader for Departmental support staff.

• Advised Open Distance Learning students on academic pathways, ensuring compliance with programme requirements.
• Coordinated academic support across 26 learning centres, enhancing student experience and engagement.
• Conducted data analysis to identify graduation readiness, improving accuracy in graduation processes.
• Supported quality assurance processes within academic administration and student records.
• Facilitated distribution of academic materials across multiple centres, ensuring seamless operations.
• Played a key role in graduation processes, verifying student eligibility and ensuring accuracy of certification.

• Deliver frontline student support services, resolving admissions and application-related queries efficiently.
• Manage and maintain student application databases, ensuring data accuracy and integrity.
• Support administrative operations within faculty departments, improving workflow coordination.
• Contribute to improved student experience through responsive and solution-oriented service delivery.
• Provide academic advice to students completing the Diploma.