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If you work in university admissions -

12 replies

JobSeekingMissile · 06/07/2022 22:51

Please can you help me with interview advice? I'm working two temporary jobs, and all the hours in existence so I have very little time to prepare. I have an interview coming up and I'm desperate to give myself the best chance of a permanent role.
really grateful for help

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JobSeekingMissile · 07/07/2022 08:37

Hopeful bump

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PineappleWilson · 07/07/2022 08:48

I work in a uni admin type role, but not in admissions. There will be questions on managing workload, stress etc. as you'll have big spikes in the summer during clearing. There'll also be confidentiality / GDPR questions - think along the lines of parent ringing and asking for confirmation of X or Y detail about their child. There will be phone / email communication skills questions and team working, within your team and with other teams e.g. faculty offices.

Also look at the university's website and decide why you want to work there. NSS results have just come out, where is your uni? What are their strengths. From my experience of interviewing, most candidates can't tell me why they want to work at our uni, only why they want my job.

p1n3apple · 07/07/2022 13:48

I'm curious to know @PineappleWilson why you ask admin job candidates why they're interested in that particular university. My experience is that for those types of roles, the reason will be geographical location rather than the institution's strengths compared with other HE institutions. I'd happily move between my local red brick uni and my town's post-92 former poly for a promotion (am not an academic) because both are easy for me to get to! There are better universities a couple of train rides away but I don't want to cross London to get there or get up that early. I've never been asked that question.

Relevant for v senior or academic roles, I would have thought, but not for admissions administrator/ programme administration etc.

That said, for an admissions role it could be useful to think about why applicants might choose that uni over somewhere else.

@JobSeekingMissile good luck. Try and come up with examples of things you've done to illustrate the requirements in the person spec.

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PineappleWilson · 07/07/2022 14:10

@p1n3apple it's more to do with people doing some research about where they're going to work. Do you like this place. I get that for most people the answer is that it's near to home and is paying for something you can do, but you've appled here rather than, in your example, the post-92 poly. In admissions you'll be speaking to loads of students or potential students, do you know who your client base area.

JobSeekingMissile · 07/07/2022 23:17

Thank you for the replies @PineappleWilson and @p1n3apple, but if a theme with your user names!
definitely planning to do research. I love the atmosphere at the university , and hopefully stand a chance of getting the job.

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JobSeekingMissile · 07/07/2022 23:19

It's clearly been a long day, please excuse the typos

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impossible · 07/07/2022 23:58

Good luck with this. My experience is from twenty years ago when I worked in a London uni (first in MA admin, later putting together research bids) and was sometimes on interview panels. My thoughts are ...

At that time the uni was keen to encourage admin staff to study -employees could enrol on courses at low or no cost and many admin staff did this. An applicant wanting to do this would often have an advantage. The uni was aways keen to encourage personal development. I do realise this may be completely out of date.

Knowing about the uni and having some interest in it's specialisms would also help.

Also think about the experience of dealing with admissions as a prospective student. Perhaps relate it to your own experience if you went to uni or the experience of someone close to you if you didn't - callers tend to be young and may need reassurance.

Another important factor (other than being able to do the job) was being friendly and respectful of diversity.

I hope this is helpful.

JobSeekingMissile · 08/07/2022 09:20

Thank you @impossible the replies have all been helpful, especially as I have minimal preparation time due to working so many hours.

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thing47 · 08/07/2022 10:05

@JobSeekingMissile there is at least one MN poster on the Education boards who works in admissions, or has done. Maybe post there as well?

Good luck with the interview!

JobSeekingMissile · 08/07/2022 12:22

thank you @thing47

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Plumpciousness · 08/07/2022 19:11

I would always recommend researching a potential employer and being able to express some knowledge (and ideally interest too) of what they do. As for why bother to ask admin job candidates why they're interested in your university, well, because universities have a diverse breadth and scale of professional services jobs and someone starting in a low level admin job might end up staying long-term and developing their career into higher positions, maybe even senior management. A candidate who has bothered to look at your website to find out what your organisation does will have an edge over someone who just says they need a job and and it's an easy commute.

I'd focus your research on two areas: the university itself and the type of work Admissions staff do.

Look at the university website. What type of university is it (former polytechnic or 'red brick' ie an old university)? How big is it, in student numbers? 4,000 or 20,000? Understand the difference between Undergraduate (UG) and Post-graduate (PG) courses. (UG are first degrees, which will be mostly school-leavers. PG qualifications are more advanced than UG, so their students are older and there are far fewer of them.) What degrees are offered? Some might have specialist entry requirements rather than just A level results, eg Art applicants will need to show their portfolios. (You don't need to know precise details, but just be aware that some courses might have complicated admissions processes). Do they have a lot of international students? See where your university is in the UK league tables.

As for Admissions, get an idea of the application process and the timing throughout the year. (Some people think universities are like schools and are very quiet during the summer holidays. That's not the case, especially for Admissions!) Undergraduate students will apply via UCAS which is a national, centralised application portal used by all UK universities. The deadline for applications is usually in the spring. Applications will be reviewed and applicants either given an Unconditional Offer (they are guaranteed a place on the course, regardless of A-level results); a Conditional Offer (they need to achieve certain grades) or be rejected.

(Yes, I know Scotland has Highers, not A-levels.)

A-level results are released in August, and then all hell breaks loose. Universities receive them a few days before the students do, to give them time to work out whether their applicants have achieved the required grades or not. Students who did get their grades then decide whether to accept their place. Students who didn't get their grades might contact the university to see if they'll still be accepted or might go into Clearing instead, which is basically frantically phoning around trying to find a university willing to offer you a place on a course. Students who got better grades than expected might try to trade-up to another university. The universities higher up the league tables make less use of Clearing, if at all, because they easily fill their courses and don't have empty places. At the other end of the scale, some universities are desperate to attract students during Clearing. That takes up the rest of August and possibly into September (the desperate universities with lots of empty places will stay open for longer). Even then they won't know for certain which students will turn up and enol. Enrolment is important because it's at that point students commit to paying their fees. They usually enrol at the end of September/beginning of October, so it's not until later in October that the university can see how many students enrolled and paid their fees. (And that applies to second and third year students re-enrolling/paying their next fees. There's no certainty that a student starting their first year will continue in the following years. Remember, student fees = university income.) Some may drop out soon after - they get a partial refund if they withdraw within a certain time period.

Sorry, this has turned into an essay.

As for the interview itself, universities tend (although not always) to have evidence-based interviews using the criteria in the job description. So usually lots of questions "Can you give me an example of when you..." or "In the following situation, what would you do?". It's OK to take a few seconds to think of an answer. Prepare by going though the person spec and your supporting statement in your application and thinking of suitable examples. If you have time, practice explaining them out loud so that it sounds more fluent in the interview.

As PPs have said, communication skills, GDPR/confidentiality, diversity and equality (eg dealing with international students; widening participation initiatives among UK students), and team working will be important. Also being able to work under intense pressure in periods of high activity.

Good luck!

JobSeekingMissile · 09/07/2022 00:10

@Plumpciousness thank you for all that. I'm struggling for time so narrowing it down really helps 🤞🏻🤞🏻🤞🏻

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