London Academy for Applied Technology
Student Finance Manager
London
Posted 2 days ago
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Role purpose
The Student Finance Manager will lead LAAT's student finance service, ensuring that students receive accurate, timely, accessible, and fair information and support throughout the student lifecycle. The postholder will oversee student funding administration, fee-related processes, complex casework and the operational interface with the Student Loans Company, Student Finance England, and other relevant funding bodies.
The role will maintain effective controls over student funding and fee records, ensuring that registration, attendance, engagement, change-of-circumstance, and withdrawal information is complete, accurate, reconciled and communicated through approved routes. The postholder will work closely with the Registrar, Finance Manager, Admissions, Student Support, and academic teams so that student records, funding decisions and financial information remain aligned.
As a service leader, the postholder will manage and develop the Student Finance team, monitor service standards and performance indicators, resolve escalated cases and complaints, and use data and feedback to improve student experience. Arrangements must be adequate on paper, effective in practice and appropriately evidenced.
The postholder will support LAAT's compliance with applicable Office for Students requirements, consumer protection expectations, partner-university requirements, data-protection obligations, and internal financial controls. The postholder is accountable for the effective discharge of the responsibilities assigned to this role but does not replace the institutional accountability of LAAT's governing body or accountable officer.
3. Key responsibilities
A. Student finance service leadership
- Lead the day-to-day delivery and continuous improvement of LAAT’s student finance services across all relevant campuses and modes of study.
- Set clear service standards, workflows, responsibilities, and escalation routes, ensuring consistent advice and treatment for all students.
- Provide supportive and accountable line management, including objective setting, workload allocation, supervision, development, performance review, and absence of management.
- Maintain appropriate service coverage during enrolment, registration, confirmation, payment, and change-of-circumstance peaks.
- Promote a professional, student-centred culture grounded in accuracy, integrity, inclusion, confidentiality, and timely resolution.
B. Student funding administration and case management
- Oversee the end-to-end administration of student funding, including applications, evidence checks, eligibility queries, confirmations, attendance-related activity, change-of-circumstance notifications, and withdrawals, in accordance with approved responsibilities and funding-body requirements.
- Act as the principal escalation point for complex, sensitive or high-risk student finance cases, ensuring decisions and communications are accurate, fair, documented and within delegated authority.
- Ensure students receive clear information about funding processes, tuition-fee liability, payment implications, deadlines, evidence requirements, and available support.
- Coordinate appropriate support for students experiencing funding delays or financial difficulty, working with Student Support and other services while maintaining clear boundaries between advice, institutional decisions, and external funding-body decisions.
- Oversee complaints and service-recovery activity relating to student finance, identifying root causes, and ensuring agreed actions are completed.
C. Fees, records, reconciliation, and controls
- Work with the Finance Manager and Registrar to ensure student funding, sponsorship, tuition fee, and payment-status records are accurate, complete, and reconciled to the relevant finance and student-record systems.
- Maintain robust controls for fee-status and funding evidence, confirmation of activity, exception handling, adjustments, refunds and changes affecting student liability or institutional income.
- Ensure student-finance transactions and decisions have clear audit trails, appropriate approvals and effective segregation of duties.
- Investigate and resolve discrepancies between student records, funding-body records, partner information, and finance data, escalating material risks promptly.
- Support timely forecasting and monitoring of tuition-fee income, outstanding confirmations, funding exceptions, aged cases, and material exposures.
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D. Data quality, reporting, and assurance
- Maintain accurate operational dashboards and management information covering caseload, processing times, confirmations, unresolved exceptions, complaints, student outcomes, and service performance.
- Establish proportionate quality-assurance checks and undertake regular sample reviews of records, evidence, decisions, and communications.
- Prepare clear, evidence-based reports for the CFO & Operations Director, Registrar, SMT and relevant committees, including material risks, trends, control weaknesses, and recommended actions.
- Maintain service procedures, process maps, risk and action logs, evidence registers, and documented control checks that demonstrate effective operation in practice.
- Support internal and external audit, partner review, due diligence, and regulatory evidence requests, ensuring information is accurate, authorised and submitted on time.
E. Compliance, fairness, and information governance
- Ensure the service operates in accordance with applicable Student Loans Company and funding-body requirements, LAAT policies, partner-university requirements, consumer-protection expectations, and relevant Office for Students' conditions.
- Ensure student-finance information is accurate, accessible, timely and consistent across published materials, staff guidance, student communications, and operational practice.
- Embed fair treatment, equality, diversity, inclusion and accessibility in advice, decision-making, service design, and escalation arrangements.
- Protect personal and financial data in accordance with UK GDPR, data protection requirements, information security controls, retention schedules, and authorised-access arrangements.
- Declare and manage actual, potential, or perceived conflicts of interest and ensure decisions follow fair, transparent, and auditable approval routes.
- Identify suspected fraud, misrepresentation, safeguarding concerns, or financial irregularity and escalate these through the appropriate institutional procedure without conducting unauthorised investigations.
F. Partnership and cross-functional working
- Maintain effective working relationships with the Student Loans Company, Student Finance England and other relevant funding or sponsorship bodies.
- Work closely with Plymouth Marjon University and other approved partners to ensure responsibilities, data exchanges, deadlines, and student communications are understood and delivered.
- Coordinate with Admissions, Registry, Finance, Student Support, and academic teams so that enrolment, attendance, engagement, interruption, transfer, and withdrawal decisions are reflected accurately and promptly.
- Provide briefings, training, and guidance to staff on student-finance procedures, responsibilities, deadlines, and escalation routes.
- Represent the student finance function at operational groups, committees, and external meetings as required.
G. Planning and continuous improvement
- Develop and maintain an annual operating plan for the student finance service, aligned with the academic cycle, enrolment profile, and institutional priorities.
- Use student feedback, complaints, performance data, audit findings, and staff insight to prioritise service improvements and evaluate their impact.
- Lead proportionate process and systems improvements that strengthen accuracy, efficiency, accessibility, resilience, and management of information.
- Maintain business-continuity arrangements for critical student-finance activity and test contingency processes where appropriate.
- Undertake other duties commensurate with the role and level of responsibility.
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4. Key working relationships
- CFO & Operations Director
- Registrar
- Finance Manager and Finance team
- Admissions Manager and Admissions team
- Student Support Lead and Student Support team
- Dean, Academic Managers, and programme teams
- Data, compliance, quality, and IT colleagues
- Plymouth Marjon University and other approved partners
- Student Loans Company, Student Finance England and other funding or sponsorship bodies
- Students and their authorised representatives, where appropriate
5. Person specification
Essential qualifications and experience
- A degree or equivalent professional experience relevant to student finance, higher education administration, finance, business administration, or a related field.
- At least five years’ relevant experience in student finance, student funding, fees of administration, or a comparable higher-education environment.
- Demonstrable experience of supervising or managing staff, allocating work, setting expectations, and improving service performance.
- Substantial working knowledge of Student Finance England and Student Loans Company processes, including evidence requirements, confirmations, attendance-related activity, and changes in circumstance.
- Experience managing complex student cases, complaints, escalations, and sensitive financial information.
- Experience maintaining accurate student-finance or fee records, completing reconciliations, resolving data discrepancies, and applying effective operational controls.
- Experience of producing management information, performance reports, audit evidence, and clear procedural documentation.
- Strong understanding of data protection, confidentiality, equality, accessibility, and fair treatment in a student-facing service.
- Ability to interpret detailed requirements and translate them into practical processes, controls, staff guidance, and student communications.
- Strong analytical, organisational, written, and interpersonal skills, with the ability to manage competing deadlines and high-volume processing periods.
- High level of digital capability, including confident use of Microsoft Excel and experience of student record, finance, case-management, or customer-relationship systems.
- Commitment to LAAT’s values of Excellence, Innovation, Integrity, Inclusivity, Empowerment and Sustainability.
Desirable qualifications and experience
- Professional qualification or training in finance, student services, management, compliance, or related discipline.
- Experience in a private or alternative higher education provider, university centre, franchised or validated provision, or a multi-campus environment.
- Experience working with a university partner and managing shared responsibilities, data exchanges, or service-level requirements.
- Knowledge of Office for Students regulation, consumer-protection expectations, student protection, and higher-education governance.
- Experience of systems implementation, workflow automation, dashboard development, or digital service improvement.
- Experience supporting audit, regulatory review, institutional due diligence, or formal partner monitoring.
6. Performance and success measures
- Accurate and timely completion of student-funding and fee-related processes.
- Reduced backlog, avoidable rework, unresolved exceptions, and preventable student complaints.
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Skills
Student Finance Administration
Staff Management
Financial Reconciliation
Case Management
Regulatory Compliance
Data Protection
Stakeholder Management
Budget Forecasting
Audit Preparation
Microsoft Excel
Student Record Systems
Risk Management
Process Improvement
Reporting
Higher Education Administration
Conflict Resolution
Location