Head, Centre for Student Financial Assistance, Oafa

COMPANY DESCRIPTION

Singapore Management University is a place where high-level professionalism blends together with a healthy informality. The 'family-like' atmosphere among the SMU community fosters a culture where employees work, plan, organise and play together - building a strong collegiality and morale within the university.

Our commitment to attract and retain talent is ongoing. We offer attractive benefits and welfare, competitive compensation packages, and generous professional development opportunities - all to meet the work-life needs of our staff. No wonder, then, that SMU continues to be given numerous awards and recognition for its human resource excellence.

DESIGNATION : Head, Centre for Student Financial Assistance, OAFA

RESPONSIBILITIES
- This job is for Office of Admissions and Financial Assistance (OAFA).
- Lead and manage the financial assistance team to develop strategic priorities and goals for SMU’s financial assistance programmes in support of strategic student admissions objectives and the mission of SMU, where no deserving student is denied an education.
- Manage the financial assistance and admissions teams towards understanding trends in student socio-economic demographics, interest and aspirations.
- Formulate, plan and implement the overall financial assistance budget for SMU, and to ensure that awards given are within budgetary controls.
- Strategise, develop, implement, monitor and refine financial assistance policies to ensure that SMU’s financial assistance strategy is sound and competitive.
- Rejuvenate, refine and monitor financial assistance policies to ensure that our students will gain optimal benefits from our financial assistance plans and awards.
- Drive the strategic and selection processes for the scholarships and financial assistance exercise, and ensure that effective processes and procedures for financial assistance allocation, processing and disbursements are developed, implemented, monitored and reviewed.
- Conduct a review of best practices in financial assistance assessment and packaging, competitive landscape assessment, strategic operations review and management, technology revamp and the encouragement of consistent technology use, for effective and accurate service for students.
- Assist the Director to develop a cloud-based dashboard of financial assistance KPIs as well as a timely reporting and monitoring system for all financial assistance metrics, for reporting purposes to senior management and the relevant Schools and departments.
- Relook and revamp SMU’s student needs analysis to ensure that our financial assistance offerings are pegged to other universities in a favourable way, and re-imagine new and innovative approaches to financial assistance so that SMU can have a competitive market edge in this aspect.
- Identify high priority areas for improvement, initiating and managing change, in a timely manner, and communicating change effectively.
- Identify and develop staff potential to improve the functional and leadership capabilities of the financial assistance team through formulation and implementation of effective plans for professional staff development. Manage staff performance planning, review, appraisal and promotion exercise through developing, coaching, counselling and motivating staff to enhance their work performance and contribution towards SMU.

QUALIFICATIONS
- Degree with at least 10 years of relevant experience, preferably with 5 years in a strategic financial aid/assistance role ideally in a higher education or governmental organisation.
- Thorough knowledge of financial assistance schemes and processes in the local and international arena, in universities or large governmental organisations.
- The strategic competency to develop and implement strategies, policies and procedures for financial assistance programmes in SMU, in accordance with applicable laws and regulations.
- A technology-driven outlook with familiarity in revamping prior financial assistance platforms to technological platforms, and in developing cloud-based financial assistance analytics and dashboard reporting.
- Strong project management skills to ensure recommended FA strategies are implemented and internalised successfully and permanently.
- A strong problem-solving approach in the competitive monitoring of peer institutions, and in the development of strategies and implementation processes to ensure a robust, efficient and timely financial assistance system.
- A meticulous approach to operations management, in order for improved processes to be rolled out efficiently and consistently, developing KPIs and analytics to monitor improvement and progress.
- Strong communications skills, both spoken and written.
- Highly motivated and driven, with good leadership, critical thinking and analytical skills.

OTHER INFORMATION