Academic Administration Officer
Institute for Optimum Nutrition
Location: Richmond, London
Salary: £29,000 (pro rata £23,200)
Contract Term: Permanent, Part-time (0.8FTE), 30 hours per week.
The Institute for Optimum Nutrition (ION) is the UK’s longest established and most respected higher education institution and thought-leader in nutritional therapy and lifestyle sciences. This is an exciting time at the Institute as we continue to develop our programmes and awards.
This is a permanent, part-time position within our Corporate Services team and a great opportunity for an individual looking to develop a career in academic administration. The Academic Administration Officer will play an important role in supporting the day-to-day running of academic operations, student records, enrolment and admissions processes.
You will be responsible for maintaining accurate student records, supporting enrolment and progression processes, responding to student enquiries and assisting with academic administration across the organisation. You will also support the preparation and operation of Progression and Awards Boards, timetabling, quality assurance activities, external data submissions and the use of our academic systems. The role will also provide ad-hoc support to the Admissions team, including processing applications, communicating with applicants and supporting open days and exhibition events.
The successful candidate will be enthusiastic about education, highly organised and detail-oriented, with excellent communication and IT skills. You will be able to manage your own workload, work to deadlines, use your initiative to resolve problems and build effective working relationships across academic and administrative teams. Experience in academic administration, customer support and/or education would be beneficial.
Do you have?
- Excellent organisational skills and strong attention to detail
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills
- Strong IT skills, including Microsoft Word, Excel and Outlook
- The ability to manage your own workload, prioritise tasks and meet deadlines
- The ability to use initiative to resolve problems and respond effectively to enquiries
- Experience handling data and managing files, with a high level of confidentiality
- A friendly, approachable and helpful manner
- The ability to work collaboratively and build strong working relationships
- A willingness to learn, ask questions and adapt to changing priorities
We offer:
- A friendly, inclusive, and values-driven working culture
- Employee assistance programme (for you and your family)
- A fun working environment with socials throughout the year
- Flexible approach to home working
- Learning and development opportunities
- Free nutritional therapy consultations with a Student Nutritional Therapist (for you, your family, and friends)
- Generous holiday entitlement
- Contributory pension scheme
Recruitment timeline:
Applications will close midnight on Friday 11th September 2026.
Job Overview
The postholder reports to the Senior Academic Administrator and liaises on general duties with the Head of Corporate Services. The postholder will support the day-to-day running of academic operations, student records, enrolment and admissions processes. You will use your own initiative to work through enquiries and identify and resolve problems. As part of the corporate services team, you will work closely with colleagues, the CEO, Head of Corporate Services and Head of Finance. In your role you will ensure processes and procedures are executed efficiently, to the highest possible standard for customers, students, finance, and academic staff.
As part of the Corporate Services team, you will work closely with academic and support staff across departments, developing strong organisational and communication skills. This role is ideal for someone who is enthusiastic about education, enjoys administrative work, and wants to develop a career in academic administration.
Key tasks and accountabilities
Key tasks and accountabilities are intended to be a guide to the range and level of work expected. This is not an exhaustive list of all the tasks that may fall to the post-holder and staff are expected to carry out such other reasonable duties as may be required.
Academic Administration and Student Support
1. Maintaining accurate and up-to-date student records on databases (Tribal EBS) and spreadsheets.
2. Responsibility for enrolment of students, create student accounts for various platforms, and the general handover from admissions into academic administration.
3. Responsibility for data entry of student grades and progress.
4. Uphold an excellent, customer-focused service to students. This includes ensuring that students receive accurate and detailed responses to enquiries, in a timely manner, with a focus on ensuring a high level of customer service, via face-to-face, email, and telephone communications.
5. Use the virtual learning platform (Moodle) in the academic administration capacity.
6. Responsibility for academic regulations and procedures, ensuring compliance with policy, and annual updating.
7. Preparation of documentation submissions to external partner or accrediting organisations, and to be responsible for data returns and submissions to these organisations.
8. Responsibility for preparation and operation of Progression and Awards Boards, ensuring that assessment results for students on all courses are processed accurately and within strict and challenging deadlines.
9. Support with timetabling.
10. Manage inboxes and respond to general academic administration queries in a professional and timely manner.
11. Organise academic meetings and take notes/minutes where required.
12. Contribute to quality assurance processes such as compiling data for reports and audits.
13. Handling private data in compliance with GDPR.
Admissions Administration Support on an ad-hoc basis to cover annual leave and sick leave
1. Processing applications, ensuring applicant documentation is complete and accurate.
2. Communicate effectively with applicants, providing updates and answering queries.
3. Support the coordination of open days and exhibition events.
4. Maintain records of applicant progress throughout the admissions cycle.
5. Stay up to date with ION’s course offerings.
6. Stay up to date with admissions policies and procedures, ensuring compliance and confidentiality.
7. Use CRM platform (Active Campaign) to monitor lead engagement and processing lead journeys.
Teamwork and communication
1. Work closely with the academic and administrative teams.
2. Collaborate across different teams.
3. Be supportive to other colleagues in your work to create a collaborative work environment.
4. Share, communicate and work with others.
5. Contribute to team meetings.
6. Actively participate in one-on-one meetings and training sessions.
Managing self and collaboration
1. Manage your own workload, prioritising tasks and seeking help when needed.
2. Be proactive in learning and contribute ideas to improve administrative processes.
3. Co-coordinate and work effectively with the Academic Admin and Admissions teams and wider organisation to achieve organisation objectives and ensure conversion targets are met.
4. Keep up to date with training requirements e.g. GDPR, PREVENT Awareness and on-the-job training in business administration and continuing professional development.
5. Develop technical, creative, and problem-solving skills.
6. Be confident in managing small projects.
Other
1. Comply with all policies and procedures.
2. In the context of ION and personal development to carry out any other duties that are commensurate with the role and as instructed by the Senior Academic Administrator or Senior Management Team.
3. Assist with other administrative duties within ION if required.
4. Adhere to the ION’s Health and Safety policies and procedures and to perform any ION wide designated duties with regard to Health and Safety and the security of ION.
5. Adhere to and actively support the Equality, Diversity and Inclusion policies and their implementation.
This job description summarises the main duties and accountabilities of the post and is not comprehensive: the post-holder may be required to undertake other duties of similar level and responsibility.
Person Specification
All criteria should be considered to be essential unless otherwise stated.
Attainments/qualifications:
- GCSEs (or equivalent) in English and Maths (minimum Grade 4/C).
- Business Administration Degree (desirable).
Technical skills and understanding:
- Excellent IT skills, including Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, Outlook).
- Experience using education systems (e.g., student databases TRIBAL EBS, admissions platforms).
- Strong organisational skills with attention to detail.
- Ability to handle confidential information professionally.
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills
- Time management skills enabling effective prioritisation of tasks and activities to meet demands of the role and agreed deadlines.
- Knowledge in project management and administration (desirable).
- Ability to use initiative to solve problems and issues as they arise.
- Ability to work effectively within a team, building strong working relationships.
Prior experience:
- Any prior experience in academic administration, customer support, education and / or charities.
- Experience working with data or managing files.
- Experience dealing with the public or answering enquiries.
- Experience collaborating with others to complete a task or project
Behavioural characteristics:
- Friendly, approachable, and helpful manner.
- Be a good communicator.
- Maintain flexibility in adapting to changing priorities, technologies, and stakeholder needs within a fast-paced academic environment.
- Willing to learn, take direction, and ask questions when unsure.
- Be able to work autonomously and demonstrate independent and self-managing working styles.
- Able to work as part of a team.
- Be able to manage variable workloads across the academic year
- Take initiative and show a high level of personal accountability for achieving goals and meeting deadlines.
- Enjoy building effective relationships with colleagues.
- An understanding of the importance of equality and diversity within an organisation and a commitment to helping create an inclusive culture.
Circumstances:
- Active engagement in ION staff supervision and performance management programme, and wider organisation activity.
- Participate actively in ongoing development of ION, through staff development and training as appropriate
- Occasional weekend attendance for meetings and events according to business needs.
If you would like the Job Description information in an alternative format, please contact us at [email protected] with the email subject "Alternative format".
We are committed to being an inclusive and accessible employer. If you require reasonable adjustments at any stage of the recruitment process please email us at [email protected] with the email subject "Accommodation Needed". Our team will work with you to ensure reasonable accommodations are made to support your needs.
The Institute for Optimum Nutrition (ION) is an independent educational charity, registered company number 2724405, registered charity number 1013084. We are committed to and champion equality and diversity in all aspects of employment. All staff are expected to understand and promote equality and diversity in the course of their work.
We welcome and encourage job applications from people of all backgrounds. We particularly welcome applications from Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) candidates, as they are currently under-represented across our workforce. Appointments are made on merit.
We are also committed to becoming a Disability Confident employer and welcome applications from disabled people and those with long-term health conditions. We will make reasonable adjustments where possible to support employees and applicants.
For any additional information or queries please feel free to contact Amy Gilham, People and Operations Officer at ION on [email protected].
Pay: £23,200.00 per year
Benefits:
- Company events
- Company pension
- Cycle to work scheme
- Health & wellbeing programme
- Work from home
Work Location: Hybrid remote in Richmond TW9
