Head of Student Experience & Student Hub

Job Title: Head of Student Experience & Student Hub

Reports to: Chief Operating Officer

Location: Astana, Kazakhstan – with occasional travel to Cardiff.

Role Purpose

The Head of Student Experience is responsible for developing and delivering a world-class student experience at Cardiff University Kazakhstan. The role leads student engagement, wellbeing, support services, and extra-curricular activities to ensure a vibrant, inclusive, and supportive campus environment.

Key Responsibilities

Strategic Leadership

• Develop and implement a student experience strategy to support the student life cycle ensuring alignment with the university’s vision and goals.
• Monitor student engagement and satisfaction, using data to drive improvements.
• Initial focus will on the foundation year at Cardiff University Kazakhstan but will expand across the whole degree programme in future years.
• Develop and lead the Student Hub implementing high-quality support for students, academic staff and fellow professional services staff across the full range of student experience and teaching delivery processes from the point of registration through to graduation.  
• Act as a point of escalation for team members who act as a first point of contact for internal and external enquirers, maintaining the highest standards of customer service.
• Support officers to ensure the development and application of continuous improvement and review of education processes across the Student Hub. 
• Manage the operation of the Hub, planning, organising and delegating work, monitoring progress and intervening as required
• Coordinate an annual calendar of education-related deadlines, work with colleagues across teams to ensure appropriate resources are allocated to address periods of peak workload and raise colleagues’ awareness of these activities.
• Act as a senior point of contact for operational issues and challenges and support the resolution of complex issues and high-level and high-impact academic enquiries, ensuring that action is taken in accordance with University policy and processes, while also ensuring issues are resolved to a high customer service standard.

Student Engagement

• Oversee student events, clubs, societies, and cultural activities to build a strong campus community.
• Lead initiatives to foster inclusion, diversity, and cross-cultural understanding.
• Act as a senior advocate for student needs and concerns.

• Promote the enhancement of the student experience and its successful delivery.

Student Support & Wellbeing

• Manage Cardiff University Kazakhstan’s wellbeing services, counselling, and academic support programs, working with colleagues to provide excellent student support across the University.
• Ensure effective pastoral care processes are in place and coordinating consistent support to students through designated academic and professional services colleagues.
• Act as the Safeguarding Officer for the University on student facing matters.

Academic Partnership

• Collaborate with academic teams to enhance the learning environment.
• Work with teaching staff to devise procedures to collect student feedback and address areas of concern to improve satisfaction scores.

Operational Management

• Manage budgets and resources for student activities and services.
• Ensure compliance with local laws, safeguarding, and health & safety requirements.
• Manage the performance, induction and development of the team

Stakeholder Engagement

• Oversee the development and implementation of a student representatives system, and student union.
• Represent Cardiff University Kazakhstan in global student experience networks and initiatives.

Essential Qualifications & Experience

• Bachelor’s degree or relevant experience
• Proven leadership ideally acquired in a student services or engagement role within a higher education / secondary education environment
• Significant experience of managing teams delivering administrative and customer support activities.  
• Experience of working in multicultural or international contexts.
• Strong interpersonal, problem-solving, and communication skills.
• Proven people management skills.
• Fluency in Kazakh and Russian; English proficiency is essential due to Cardiff University’s international environment.
• Excellent organisational and planning skills and the ability to prioritise and meet deadlines under pressure
• Proven ability to manage change and motivate newly formed teams.
• Commitment to safeguarding, equality, and diversity.
• Experience with budgeting and resource management.

Desirable

• Experience of working in an international branch campus.
• Knowledge of wellbeing frameworks and student engagement best practices.
• Experience with legal compliance and safeguarding.
• Postgraduate/Professional qualification
• Experience of working in a Higher Education environment
• Significant experience of student support management and programme administration experience.  

Terms of Employment

• Full-time employment in accordance with the labor legislation of the Republic of Kazakhstan and available from January 2026.

• One-year employment contract with the possibility of extension.

• Competitive salary commensurate with the responsibilities of the position.

• Opportunity to contribute to an internationally recognized educational project.