ACADEMIC DEAN
Job Responsibilities
The College
UK Management College (UKMC) is a private, widening-participation higher education provider established in 2016, delivering degree programmes with an integrated Foundation Year in partnership with universities that act as the awarding bodies. The College delivers, but does not develop or award, curriculum: all programmes are validated or franchised by its partner universities — the University of Wolverhampton (principal partner), Canterbury Christ Church University, Arts University Bournemouth and Health Sciences University — and are delivered across the College’s campuses in Manchester (College House, Salford and Abarna Campus), Derby, Newcastle (North Shields) and Sunderland. Course delivery is organised course-wide rather than campus-by-campus: each programme is led by a Course Director who owns the Course Performance Plan across all campuses, while at each campus a Head of Academics (Campus Academic Lead) works with Course Officers and Module Leaders to deliver and assure provision locally. The College measures its success through retention, continuation, completion and progression.
Role Purpose
The Academic Dean is the College’s senior academic leader for the delivery of all courses, with all partner universities, across all campuses. The post holder holds executive responsibility for ensuring that every programme the College delivers is up to date, coherent and effectively delivered in accordance with the regulations of the relevant awarding body; that delivery at every campus is properly resourced, staffed and quality-assured; and that assessment, examination and academic-standards processes operate credibly and consistently. The Academic Dean owns academic workforce planning and academic staff recruitment, ensuring the College has the qualified, developed and well-supported teaching workforce its students and partners require. The Academic Dean reports to the Associate Provost / Provost and works in close partnership with the Dean of Student Experience, whose teams provide the academic services — Personal Academic Tutoring, wellbeing, engagement, academic language and learning, employability, academic integrity, and research and knowledge exchange — that surround and support course delivery. Together, the two Deans are jointly accountable for the College’s student outcomes: continuation, completion and progression at or above the College’s institutional targets, which are themselves set above OfS numerical baselines.
Reporting and Organisational Position
Reports to: Associate Provost / Provost.
Line manages: Associate Deans and Assistant Deans; through them, the Course Directors; and the Academic Heads of Campus (Campus Academic Leads) at each campus. The wider academic delivery workforce — Module Leaders, Course Officers, Lecturers and Assistant Lecturers — reports through this structure. The Head of Learning and Teaching reports to the Academic Dean for the teaching-quality, observation and academic CPD agenda.
Works with: The Dean of Student Experience; the Academic Registrar and the Academic Services and Registry structure; the Head of Quality and Compliance; the Head of Human Resources (academic workforce planning and recruitment); the Chief Operating Officer (timetabling, estates and campus resources); partner universities (awarding bodies), their link tutors and boards; and the College’s senior committees.
Committees: Chairs the Faculty Committee; member of Academic Board and the Executive Board as constituted; senior oversight of the Course Coordination Committee (chaired by an Associate / Assistant Dean) and, through Course Directors, of the Course Committees for every programme.
Key Responsibilities
A. Strategic Academic Leadership
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Provide institution-wide academic leadership for the delivery of the College’s full course portfolio, ensuring delivery plans give effect to the Strategic Plan 2025–2030 and the learning and teaching sub-strategy.
- Lead, develop and performance-manage the Associate and Assistant Deans, agreeing objectives, holding regular documented one-to-ones, conducting appraisals and building a capable, collegial academic leadership team.
- Ensure the course-wide delivery model — Course Directors owning each programme across campuses, with Academic Heads of Campus assuring local delivery — operates effectively, with clear accountabilities and no gaps between course-level and campus-level oversight.
- Advise the Associate Provost / Provost, the Executive Board and the Board of Directors on academic delivery capacity, risks and opportunities, ensuring that growth in student numbers is always measured, deliberate and matched to delivery capacity.
- Deputise for the Provost on academic delivery matters as required and represent the College’s academic provision externally.
B. Course Delivery with Partner Universities
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Hold overall responsibility for the delivery of every programme franchised or validated by the University of Wolverhampton, Canterbury Christ Church University, Arts University Bournemouth and Health Sciences University, ensuring each is delivered strictly in accordance with the relevant awarding body’s academic regulations, programme specifications and partnership agreement.
- Ensure each course remains up to date and coherent in delivery: that module content, learning materials and reading lists are current; that modules build appropriately across levels from the integrated Foundation Year onwards; and that any changes proposed by an awarding body are implemented promptly and communicated to students.
- Lead the College’s academic contribution to partner-university validation, approval, periodic review and revalidation events, including the preparation of delivery plans, staffing evidence and staff CVs for partner approval.
- Oversee annual programme monitoring and course self-evaluation for every programme, ensuring Course Performance Plans are owned, evidenced and acted upon, and that external examiner reports and partner monitoring outcomes result in tracked improvement actions.
- Manage teach-out obligations with care — including the Canterbury Christ Church University teach-out — so that every continuing student receives a full, high-quality delivery experience to completion.
- Act as the College’s senior academic point of contact with each partner university on delivery matters, maintaining constructive, transparent relationships with partner academic leads and link tutors, and supporting due diligence for prospective partnerships under the Partner Selection Framework.
C. Multi-Campus Delivery and Parity
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Ensure every campus — Manchester (College House and Abarna House), Salford, Derby, Newcastle (North Shields) and Sunderland — delivers its allocated provision to the same academic standard, with equivalent access to qualified staff, learning resources, library provision and the virtual learning environment.
- Oversee the deployment of Academic Heads of Campus, ensuring each campus has effective local academic leadership, and that cross-campus consistency is monitored through the Course Coordination Committee and campus-level reporting.
- Work with the Chief Operating Officer and the Academic Registrar to ensure timetabling, room utilisation and campus academic resources support effective delivery, and that campus capacity is respected in enrolment planning.
- Monitor outcomes by campus and by programme — retention, continuation, completion and progression — identifying and addressing any campus-level variation in performance or student experience.
- Ensure new campus provision, including provision delivered at Salford, Derby and Sunderland for Health Sciences University programmes, is established with full delivery capability from the first day of teaching.
D. Assessment, Examinations and Academic Standards
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Hold senior oversight of the operation of assessment across the College: assessment scheduling, secure examination arrangements, marking, internal moderation and the timely submission of results to each awarding body in line with its regulations and deadlines.
- Ensure College staff are prepared for and effectively represented at partner-university assessment boards and boards of examiners, and that board outcomes are implemented accurately and promptly.
- Ensure external examining arrangements operate effectively for every programme and that external examiner feedback is answered and actioned.
- Safeguard the credibility of assessment in collaboration with the Dean of Student Experience, whose portfolio includes the Academic Integrity Office, ensuring assessment design, invigilation and moderation minimise opportunities for misconduct.
- Ensure reasonable adjustments and agreed support plans are implemented consistently in assessment delivery, in collaboration with the Dean of Student Experience’s teams and in compliance with the Equality Act 2010.
E. Academic Workforce Planning and Recruitment
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Own the College’s academic workforce plan: model staffing requirements against enrolment forecasts, staff–student ratios, module delivery plans and campus growth, and keep the plan aligned with the budget and the five-year financial forecasts.
- Lead academic recruitment with the Head of Human Resources: define establishment needs, approve job descriptions and person specifications, chair or oversee senior academic appointments, and ensure every appointed member of teaching staff is appropriately qualified and approved by the relevant awarding body where required.
- Oversee academic induction, probation, mentoring and the assistant-lecturer development pathway, ensuring new staff are supported to full effectiveness.
- Oversee the academic workload model, ensuring workloads are fair, transparent and consistent with high-quality delivery, and that Personal Academic Tutoring, scholarship and development time are properly recognised.
- Champion academic staff development and progression through the College’s academic progression pathways and salary structure, supporting staff towards the PGCert and Advance HE Fellowship in line with institutional targets, working with the Head of Learning and Teaching.
- Plan resilience into the workforce — cover arrangements, the appropriate use of part-time and casual academic staff, and succession planning for academic leadership roles.
F. Learning, Teaching and Delivery Quality
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Hold senior oversight of the Head of Learning and Teaching and the teaching-quality agenda: the teaching observation scheme, peer review, the academic CPD programme and calendar, the annual Learning and Teaching Conference, and partner-university teaching observations.
- Ensure teaching across all campuses is inclusive, research-informed and compliant with the Teaching, Learning and Assessment frameworks, including the Inclusive Curriculum Framework and the English Proficiency Framework.
- Ensure the virtual learning environment is populated, current and consistently used across all modules and campuses, and that digital delivery meets the standards expected of higher education in England.
- Use student feedback — module evaluations, mid-module student-representative discussions, partner surveys and institutional surveys — to drive continuous improvement in delivery, with visible “you said, we did” responses.
G. Student Outcomes and Data
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Hold delivery-side accountability for the College’s outcome measures — retention, continuation, completion and progression — monitored by campus and by programme, and for sustaining performance at or above the College’s institutional targets, which are set above OfS numerical baselines.
- Ensure Course Directors analyse attainment, engagement and outcomes data by demographic group, identify at-risk modules and cohorts, and act early, in collaboration with the Personal Academic Tutor team and the Dean of Student Experience’s services.
- Ensure academic delivery data — attendance, engagement, assessment and outcomes — is recorded accurately in the College’s student information systems and supports reliable internal reporting and external regulatory returns.
- Contribute delivery evidence to the annual Self-Assessment Report and the Quality Enhancement Plan, and account for delivery performance at Academic Board and to the Board of Directors through the Board Assurance Dashboard.
H. Governance, Compliance and Regulation
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Chair the Faculty Committee and ensure its sub-structure — the Course Coordination Committee and the Course Committees for every programme — operates effectively, with accurate minutes, tracked actions and reliable reporting to Academic Board.
- Ensure academic delivery complies with the OfS conditions of registration — in particular the quality conditions relating to course content and delivery, resources and support, and assessment and awards — the UK Quality Code, the Equality Act 2010, Prevent and data-protection obligations.
- Ensure the College can evidence its delivery arrangements to regulators, awarding bodies and external reviewers at any time, maintaining complete and current programme documentation, staffing structures and delivery records.
- Escalate material academic risks promptly through the risk register and to the Associate Provost / Provost, and ensure lessons from complaints, appeals and academic incidents inform improvement.
- Undertake any additional duties assigned by the Associate Provost / Provost, commensurate with the seniority of the role.
Working with the Dean of Student Experience
The Academic Dean and the Dean of Student Experience hold complementary portfolios within a single academic leadership model, under the senior oversight of the Associate Provost / Provost. The Academic Dean leads what is taught, by whom, and how well it is delivered; the Dean of Student Experience leads the services that enable every student to engage, persist and succeed. The two Deans are expected to operate as close partners: to maintain shared oversight of student outcomes; to align delivery plans with support capacity before each intake; to ensure Personal Academic Tutors, wellbeing, engagement, language, employability and integrity services are embedded in course delivery at every campus; and to present joint assurance on the academic student experience to Academic Board. Neither portfolio succeeds without the other, and both Deans are jointly accountable for the coherence of the whole.
Values and Conduct
The Academic Dean is expected to model the College’s values at all times: to act with integrity, fairness and transparency; to promote equality, diversity and inclusion across the academic community; to safeguard the interests, welfare and outcomes of students; to respect the authority of each awarding body over its curriculum and awards; and to uphold the College’s widening-participation mission, in which student success is measured by the distance travelled and the outcomes achieved — retention, continuation, completion and progression — rather than by selectivity.
Please visit https://ukmc.ac.uk for more information
