Customer Service Adviser (Student Support)

Weekly Working Hours: 37

Contract Type: Fixed Term Contract

Fixed Term Contract: End Date: 6 November 2026

Change your career, change lives

The Open University is the UK’s largest university, a world leader in flexible part-time education combining a mission to widen access to higher education with research excellence, transforming lives through education. Find out more about us and our mission by watching this short video (you will be taken to YouTube by clicking this link).

About the Role

We are looking for talented new members to join our Student Recruitment & Support Adviser team. This role will be to provide student-centred information by phone, email, and webchat, so that we can continue to provide an exceptional and responsive service to our students and enquirers. We are hugely passionate about what we do and are looking for likeminded individuals, who genuinely care about our students and their journey with us, and who can work in a fast-paced environment which is focussed on continuous improvement.  

This role has a fixed start date of Monday 11 May 2026 where successful candidate will start a fully supported 6 week training and induction programme. 

The internal job title for this role is Student Recruitment and Support Adviser.

Key Responsibilities

• Be the first point of contact for students and enquirers, to provide information regarding registration, funding and study support at The Open University. To deal with both proactive and reactive contact through different channels, primarily inbound and outbound phone calls, and emails/webform, and webchat within agreed service levels. Where necessary, refer on to other staff with specialist expertise, as part of our Information, Advice and Guidance (IAG) model, making interactions with The Open University as straightforward as possible.
• To undertake administrative and operational processes to support student and enquirer requests. This includes registering students with a variety of payment methods and processing data related to student fees and funding. We also support a range of disability-related activity and schemes for different groups of students.
• To work to a structured rota, which can be subject to on-the-day changes. The rota schedules the working day to ensure that all activity is dealt with promptly and ensures effective management of our workload.
• Use university systems and databases to maintain student and enquirer records, including study records and personal details whilst following agreed operating procedures.
• A commitment to continuous improvement, developing your own skills and knowledge to maintain and improve personal performance. To assist proactively in the development and improvement of internal and inter team working.

Work location/Leave restrictions

This role is contractually based in the Edinburgh office, but we do support hybrid working across our team. Currently, attendance in the office is required at least once a fortnight, with both the cost and travel time being the responsibility of the employee and not compensated by the University.        

Please note that there will be more frequent attendance required for the initial 6-week training period (3 times per week) as well as holiday leave being restricted during this period. Leave will also be restricted in the busy peak periods. Current peak periods are mid-August to late September, and January. 

About You

Essential:

• National 5 in Maths and English at Grade C or above, or equivalent.
• Recent experience of working in a customer facing environment.
• Good communication skills, both oral and written. For example; effective telephone techniques and the ability to explain policies and processes clearly and succinctly.
• Good organisational skills, including the ability to cope with heavy workloads in an often high pressure environment, while still meeting deadlines, working productively and accurately. 
• Flexibility, including adaptability to changing circumstances, duties, workloads, practices, and systems. 
• Commitment to excellent customer service and ongoing personal development to deliver this service. 
• Strong IT skills, including use of standard Microsoft Office packages. 
• An understanding of team working and the ability to work as part of a team. 
• Experience of answering and actioning diverse queries, using a wide range of information sources. 
• To follow documented information and procedures, using initiative in problem-solving, whilst recognising boundaries.
• Ability to demonstrate a rapid understanding of newly presented information. 
• Ability to carry out the role in a way that is consistent with equality legislation and University policies.

Desirable:

• Relevant Vocational Qualification to Level 2 or above.
• Recent experience of working within a Higher Education environment.
• Experience of providing information and the ability to transfer this experience to a higher education context. 
• Experience of working to personal, team and organisational targets. 
• Experience of working in a multi-channel environment and coping with high volume telephone calls (inbound and outbound), emails and webchat. 
• Ability to use customer relationship management system.

Support with your application

If you have any questions, or need support or adjustments relating to your application, the recruitment process, or the role, please contact us on 01908 541111 or email careers@open.ac.uk quoting the advert reference number.

What's in it for you?

At The Open University, we offer a range of benefits to recognise and reward great work, alongside policies and flexible working that contribute towards a great work life balance. Get all the details of what benefits we offer by visiting our Staff Benefits page (clicking this link will open a new window).

Flexible working

We are open to discussions about flexible working. Whether it’s a job share, part time, compressed hours or another working arrangement. Please reach out to us to discuss what works best for you.

Next steps in the Recruitment process

It is anticipated application updates will be provided by 21 March 2026. Shortlisted candidates will be invited to participate in a short task and attend a panel interview between 25 March-30 March 2026.

Early closing date notification

We may close this job advert earlier than the published closing date where a satisfactory number of applications are received. We would therefore encourage early applications.

How to apply

To apply for this role, please submit the following as separate documents;

• CV
• Supporting statement, up to 1,000 words, you should set out in your statement why you’re interested in this role and provide examples of where your skills and experience meet the required competencies for this role as detailed in the job and person specification.

You can view your progress and application communications when you are logged into our recruitment system. Please check your spam/junk folders if you do not receive associated email updates.

The Open University is committed to equality, diversity and inclusion which is reflected in our mission to be open to people, places, methods and ideas. We aim to foster a diverse and inclusive environment so that all in our OU community can reach their potential. We recognise that different people bring different perspectives, ideas, knowledge, and culture, and that this difference brings great strength.  We strive to recruit, retain and develop the careers of a diverse pool of students and staff, and particularly encourage applications from all underrepresented groups. We also aspire to make The Open University a supportive workplace for all through our policies, services and staff networks.