Salary: £35,000 - £40,000 per annum

Employment type: Permanent 

Hours per week: 37

Reporting into: Head of Financial Operations 

Department: Finance

Click here to read the full job description and view our excellent benefits here

This role operates on a hybrid working arrangement that will require 1 days travel into our Coventry head office. This may fluctuate in line with business requirements. Our working model arrangements are a non-contractual benefit so please note that an Arden work location is added to our employment contracts.

About Arden University:

We are an aspirational and multi-award-winning university, delivering rapid growth with ambitious plans to disrupt the HE sector through our passion for innovation and digital education. Our vision is to become the first-choice university for career-focused lifelong learners worldwide, ensuring that everyone, everywhere can access higher education.

There has never been a more exciting time to join Arden University, as we expand into new disciplines, forge worldwide partnerships, and expand our locations.

About our Department:

The Finance Department at Arden University plays a pivotal role in supporting our ambitious growth and innovation agenda. As trusted partners across the University, we ensure that every financial decision underpins Arden’s mission to make education more accessible, affordable, and impactful for learners worldwide.

Our department is structured around excellence, collaboration, and continuous improvement — providing strategic insight, robust financial management, and efficient transactional services that enable the University to deliver on its goals. From managing core financial operations and student finance to driving digital transformation across systems and processes, we are committed to achieving best-in-class financial stewardship and service delivery.

About the Opportunity:

This is an exciting chance to step into a leadership role that directly supports Arden’s mission to remove financial barriers for learners. As the Funding Support Team Leader, you will lead the team responsible for administering and managing all applications to our Financial Support Bursary schemes—ensuring students receive timely, fair, and compliant financial support. You will drive service excellence by monitoring team performance, reporting against KPIs, and ensuring all activity aligns with regulatory requirements and internal SLAs. 

Working collaboratively with colleagues across the University, you’ll help shape and refine our financial support frameworks, contributing to the continuous improvement of our hardship assessment processes. With responsibility for maintaining high standards of data accuracy and compliance, this role offers the opportunity to influence strategic decision-making, support staff development, and make a meaningful impact on the student experience. Through ongoing professional development, you will continue to grow your expertise while leading a service that makes a real difference.

About You:

Essential Experience / Skills

• Experience of managing administrative teams.
• Proficient in Microsoft 365, email, and web-based systems.
• Able to prioritise and manage workloads with conflicting deadlines.
• Strong interpersonal skills, with the ability to work effectively with students, academic staff, and senior university managers.
• Proficient in process review and improvement.
• Strong customer service skills.
• Experience in effectively managing and developing a small team.
• Takes ownership and responsibility for personal and team performance.
• Highly numerate, with experience of managing budgets.
• Ability to interpret rules and regulations and train team members on changes.
• Ability to evaluate and challenge service provision to develop innovative solutions.
• Experience of customer- or student-centred service planning and development.

Desirable Requirements:

• Educated to degree level or equivalent.
• Experience of working within higher education

Why Arden:

At Arden, you will become a part of a passionate and dedicated team who are committed to removing unnecessary barriers to learning and making education more accessible. Our people work hard to ensure our students journeys are the best they can possibly be, as such we want to reward our people with fantastic benefits. Employees benefit from:

• 30 days holiday + bank holidays on-top, and even a Christmas closure!
• A generous Aviva pension plan, company contributions starting from 7%
• SimplyHealth plan option
• Private Medical Insurance coverage (applies to certain job roles)
• Access to Perkbox benefits
• Study any Arden course for free, with a discount for all family and friends
• Plus, other excellent benefits
• Our ‘Golden Ticket’ which allows you to gift anyone in your life a free Arden education
  

Our Values:

Stand out, Progressive, Accessible, Resourceful, Kindness, reflect who we are as an institution, a team and as individuals. If they also reflect you and you are excited by the chance to be the driving, creative force within a growing business, we want to hear from you.

There has never been a more exciting time to join Arden University, as we expand into new disciplines and locations.

Closing Date: Thursday 4th December

We reserve the right to close this vacancy before the specified closing date should we receive sufficient applications or in order to respond to business needs. In order to avoid missing an opportunity to apply please submit your application as early as possible.

If you are a current Arden student or have an upcoming course with us, you are not eligible to apply for Student Experience roles due to a conflict of interest related to system access.

Equity, Diversity & Inclusion:

Arden University is proud to be a Disability Confident Employer. This means that if you have a disability, as defined by the Disability Equality Act 2010, you may be guaranteed an interview if you meet the essential criteria for the role.

If you wish to be considered under this scheme, you can indicate via the application form below. By doing so, you are also consenting for this information to be shared with the hiring team. For more details on what qualifies as a disability under the Disability Equality Act 2010, please refer to the guidance here.

As an Equal Opportunity Employer we celebrate diversity and are committed to creating a diverse and inclusive workplace. Therefore, we make sure that our recruitment and selection processes never discriminate based upon people's age, disability, gender, race or ethnicity, religion or belief, sexual orientation, or other personal circumstances, and actively welcome applications from all groups.

Sponsorship statement:

Please be aware that some roles may not meet the points requirement for a sponsored Skilled Worker visa under the points-based immigration system. However, we welcome applications from candidates who do not currently have the right to work in the UK but may be eligible for a visa through an alternative route.