Head of Student Finance

FTE: 1.0FTE (working 37 hours per week)

Duration of Contract: Permanent

Annual Leave: 30 days plus standard public holidays and an additional 4 days including the closure of our offices between Christmas and New Year

Location: College Lane Campus, Hatfield. Travel to other campuses will be required to meet the demands of the role. Hybrid working available, dependent upon business needs.

We are seeking an experienced and motivated professional to lead the Student Finance department within the Student Administration Service.

 Main duties and responsibilities

The Head of Student Finance will oversee the management of Income Control, Student Account Management, and Student Funding and Financial Support teams, ensuring a professional, innovative, and forward-thinking approach to student finance. You will be responsible for policy, systems, and administration relating to the collection and debt management of student tuition and accommodation fees and payment of student scholarships, access and participation bursaries and hardship funds. The role requires you to lead, manage and develop the team to deliver a professional and knowledgeable advisory service with the ability to deliver service excellence while protecting the University against financial risk.

Skills and experience required

You will have a track record of successfully leading all aspects of a large finance function and experience of managing a team including recruiting, developing, training, appraising and motivating staff. A thorough understanding and appreciation of relevant national and international developments, policies and benchmarks and a broad knowledge of current approaches to service-related work and of current debates, issues and challenges within the HE sector is essential. You will also have experience of dealing with highly confidential, sensitive information and an awareness of Data Protection legislation.

You will have financial management skills, with experience of the preparation of reports (including statistical) for use in policy development and to inform senior decision making. The ability to understand and interpret complex regulations and the ability to meet agreed deadlines in a busy and complex environment is essential. You will also have the ability to motivate staff and develop and maintain high performing teams as well as the ability to innovate and manage change whilst maintaining high quality service delivery. Experience of monitoring and managing budgets effectively would be advantageous.

Qualifications required

You will be educated with a minimum of a Degree or equivalent, or have significant professional work experience in an equivalent finance-related role.  

Please view the job description and person specification for a full list of the duties and essential criteria, click the 'Apply' button above. Please attach a personal statement showing clearly how your skills and experience match the Person Specification.

Internal applicants – please ensure you apply via your employee self service portal.

We regret that we are unable to offer UKVI sponsorship for this post; applicants will either hold UK Right to Work or demonstrate access to UK Right to Work before an offer is made.

Contact Details/Informal Enquiries: Please contact Mark Partridge, Director of Student Administration Services (Student Services), m.partridge2@herts.ac.uk 

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Closing Date: 15 February 2026

Interview Date: TBC 

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