Student Support Administrator

Act Student Support provides specialist support to university students across the UK.

We support students with disabilities, neurodivergence, mental health difficulties and specific learning differences, primarily through the Disabled Students’ Allowance (DSA).

As our organisation continues to grow, we are looking for a friendly, organised, empathetic, non-judgemental and reliable Student Support Administrator to help manage the day-to-day administration behind our student support services.

This is a varied, people-focused role. You will communicate regularly with students and support staff while making sure referrals, records, accounts and queries are managed efficiently.

You will be joining us as our first dedicated administration person, so this is an exciting opportunity to make the role your own and become an important part of Act as we continue to grow.

Hours & Flexibility

We currently believe the role requires a minimum of 2 hours per day, five days per week (Monday-Friday).

There are no rigidly set hours, but we need the successful applicant to work for at least two hours each day sometime between 9am and 5pm, so that our students and staff have consistent administrative support throughout the working week.

We are very happy to have a conversation about what working pattern would suit you.

There is plenty to do, so if you would like to work more than the minimum 10 hours per week, there will be opportunities to do so.

As Act Student Support continues to grow, we anticipate that the administration requirement will grow too. This could mean increasing your hours over time or eventually welcoming an additional administrator to work alongside you.

A Flexible, Home-Based Role

This position is fully home-based, and a work laptop and mobile phone will be supplied.

We recognise that talented people need flexibility. Parents and carers, including mums and dads with young children at home, are very welcome to apply.

We are interested in finding the right person who can manage the responsibilities of the role reliably, rather than expecting somebody to fit into a traditional office environment.

What You you Be Doing

Your responsibilities will include:

• Setting up new student profiles and accounts
• Setting up and maintaining staff accounts
• Processing new student referrals
• Maintaining accurate student and staff information, including important dates and support periods
• Acting as an administrator for our student management system, Touchpoint
• Answering telephone calls
• Responding to emails
• Responding to student and staff text and WhatsApp messages
• Answering day-to-day queries from students and members of staff
• Supporting students to complete Disabled Students’ Allowance (DSA) applications
• Helping students understand the DSA process and what they need to do next
• Following up outstanding information and documentation
• Helping students who may be confused or overwhelmed by administrative processes
• Supporting the allocation and matching of students with appropriate support workers
• Liaising with students, staff, universities and other relevant organisations
• Assisting with staff hours and associated administration
• Monitoring dates, deadlines and outstanding administrative tasks
• Keeping student and staff records accurate and up to date
• Creating creative, colourful and inclusive social media content
• Posting and scheduling content across Act Student Support’s social media platforms
• Providing general administrative support to the management team

Touchpoint Administration

Touchpoint is the system we use to help manage our students, staff, referrals and support.

You will become one of the main administrators of this system, helping to ensure profiles are created correctly, information remains up to date and important dates and administrative requirements are monitored.

Previous experience or knowledge of Touchpoint would be a significant advantage, although training can be provided.

You don’t necessarily need experience within a large organisation or a traditional office environment.

Because you will be our first dedicated administrator, however, we need somebody who is comfortable taking initiative, learning and working things out independently.

We don’t expect you to know everything. We do want someone who, when they come across something unfamiliar, is willing to investigate, learn, ask the right questions and find a solution rather than always waiting to be told exactly what to do.

We are looking for somebody who is:

• Friendly and approachable
• Extremely organised
• Reliable and dependable
• Empathetic and non-judgemental
• Able to use their own initiative
• A practical problem-solver
• Comfortable learning and working things out independently
• Confident speaking to people on the telephone
• Comfortable communicating by email, text and WhatsApp
• Able to write clearly and professionally
• Good at keeping track of dates, tasks and outstanding information
• Confident using computers and online systems
• Able to learn new systems relatively quickly
• Comfortable managing several different tasks throughout the day
• Patient when somebody needs something explained more than once
• Able to maintain confidentiality when working with sensitive information

Most importantly, we need somebody who will show care, patience and kindness when communicating with students who may be neurodivergent, experiencing mental health difficulties, have learning differences, physical disabilities or other health conditions.

A student may be anxious, overwhelmed, struggling to process information or unsure what they need to do next. How you communicate with them matters just as much as completing the administrative task correctly.

DSA Experience - A Big Advantage

Previous knowledge or experience of the Disabled Students’ Allowance (DSA) would be a significant advantage.

We would particularly love to hear from somebody who has previously worked within:

• Disabled Students’ Allowance administration
• A university Disability or Student Support Team
• Non-Medical Helper (NMH) administration
• Higher education administration
• Student Finance or DSA-related services
• Disability, mental health or neurodiversity services

If you already understand DSA applications, Needs Assessments, support recommendations, DSA funding or NMH provision, please highlight this in your application.

However, DSA experience is desirable rather than essential, and training can be provided to the right person.

The Person Matters

This isn’t just a job involving spreadsheets, emails and student accounts.

Sometimes a student contacting us will simply need an account updating. Another student might be overwhelmed by their DSA application and not know what to do next. A member of staff might need an urgent question answered so that they can support their student.

We therefore need somebody who can combine excellent organisation with kindness, patience and empathy.

We want someone who notices when something hasn’t been done, follows things up and genuinely wants to help get things sorted., If you have previous experience of DSA, Touchpoint, university disability services, NMH support or student administration, please make sure you tell us about this in your application.