Application Open:
Full-Time
Job Purpose:
The Senior Graduate Student Recruitment Specialist is dedicated to attracting a diverse cohort of high-calibre students for MBZUAI’s graduate programs focusing on priority and emerging markets. This position is responsible for leading targeted recruitment strategies for priority markets and exceptional student groups, ensuring alignment with the university’s strategic objectives. By cultivating relationships with key academic institutions and leveraging innovative marketing techniques, the Senior Graduate Student Recruitment Specialist will enhance the visibility of MBZUAI’s programs in competitive markets. The role emphasizes market specific expertise and strong opportunity development and relationship building skills to improve recruitment efforts. Ultimately, this position contributes to building a vibrant academic community that fosters excellence, diversity, and innovation in the field of artificial intelligence.
Key Responsibilities:
Market Development
- Using a data-driven an approach to identify new market opportunities that align with MBZUAI’s recruitment goals.
- Investigate and develop new recruitment activities and tactics for priority and emerging markets.
- Actively build new student recruitment pipelines with key universities and organizations in key markets.
- Develop and maintain relationship and collaboration with target universities and institutions, including careers offices, faculty members, and student organizations to contribute to student recruitment outcomes.
- Plan and execute engagement activities with select high-ranked universities or research institutions to present MBZUAI’s value proposition and encourage applications from exceptional students.
Projects
- Lead the implementation of key student recruitment initiatives such as the Undergraduate Research Internship Program to attract high quality leads and contribute to student recruitment outcomes.
- Ensure projects are delivered to expectation with high level of stakeholder management including coordination of relevant teams within MBZUAI, faculty and Students.
- Provide post event report including key insights on program outcomes and recommendation for future improvements.
- Identify new project opportunities relevant to key markets that will increase student recruitment outcomes.
Events
- Lead key events from planning to implementation including managing stakeholders, budgets, timelines, and logistics, ensuring events serve their intended purpose, and comply with relevant MBZUAI policies including budgeting, procurement, resource allocation, and security policies.
- Attend student recruitment events as required within UAE, internationally and outside of standard work hours.
- Represent Student Recruitment at events including meeting, events and high-level visits.
- Coordinate with Marketing and Communications to ensure event promotion reaches the intended audience and is consistent with MBZUAI branding and communications standards.
- Coordinate with General Services to ensure physical and attendee security at events, including that requisite arrangements are made for the security of VIPs and special guests.
- Oversee event logistics including venue preparation, materials sourcing, catering, and—in consultation with Information Technology—audio-visual requirements, ensuring services are delivered according to plan to achieve seamless running of MBZUAI events.
- Manage the financial and contractual requirements associated with events, ensuring vendor and supplier agreements clearly stipulate deliverables and conform with MBZUAI procurements requirements; and that the cost of events does not exceed budget.
- Oversee the performance of events staff and volunteers, ensuring efficient and effective execution of events.
- Manage post-event evaluation and analysis, creating reports for management that measure and identify successful outcomes and areas for improvement.
Marketing and Communications
- Provide market specific insights to optimize marketing strategy and tactics for key markets.
- Develop prospective student content fit for student recruitment tactics to increase MBZUAI profile in key markets.
- Manage communication to prospective students in key markets including on LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, Tik Tok, WhatsApp, and Telegram⎯including and selecting effective opinion leaders in each market and determining the most efficient communication methods.
- Case manage priority students to nurture throughout the application and admission process.
- Design, manage, analyze, and report on student recruitment surveys in collaboration with Marketing and Communications.
- Briefing Marketing and Communications about objectives, events, and achievements of MBZUAI faculty members & students that are likely to appeal to target students.
- Manage electronic direct mailing sent via the CRM, ensuring communications and campaigns conform to MBZUAI marketing and communications standards, and regulatory requirements.
Administration
- Prepare reports, briefings, and presentations in a timely manner utilizing the full suite of MS Office products, incorporating data visualizations, ensuring all outputs serve intended operational and strategic purposes, and that outputs align with MBZUAI marketing, branding, and communications standards.
- Provide high-level administrative support including arranging travel, formulating meeting agendas, recording minutes of meetings, and creating and maintaining administrative systems that enhance the operational efficiency of the department.
- Provide efficient and effective financial administration support for Student Recruitment, including managing purchase requests, invoices, and reimbursements; tracking budget; and bringing variances and anomalies to the prompt attention of the line manager in a timely manner.
Other Duties
- At the direction of the Head of Student Recruitment, execute other duties commensurate with these functional responsibilities.
Academic Qualifications:
- A minimum of a Bachelor’s degree in communications, marketing, public relations, business administration or other relevant discipline. A Master’s degree is preferred.
Professional Experience:
Essential
- At least five years’ experience in student recruitment, business development or marketing & communications preferably in a university or other academic institution.
- At least two years’ experience recruiting students to graduate-level STEM courses.
- Strong connections with top universities or research institutions in key target markets.
- Demonstrable experience producing high-quality communications and marketing content in a business environment.
- Superior computing skills, particularly with MS Excel, Word, PowerPoint, Access, Outlook, and with data analysis software.
- Experience in managing databases and optimizing the utility of CRM systems to achieve operational objectives.
- Proficiency in quantitative and qualitative data analysis, analytics, and reporting.
- Demonstrable knowledge and understanding of continuous quality improvement.
- Excellent written communication skills with particular competency in high-level report writing, and presenting visualizations of findings and recommendations.
- Experience managing meeting and events logistics and administration, and hosting organization visitors including senior executives and officials.
- Proven ability to identify key stakeholders who are central to the success of an initiative.
- Proven record of managing complex projects, office administration, meeting deadlines, and achieving results.
- Demonstrated success operating in a multicultural environment and adapting systems and processes to meet diverse expectations and needs.
- Exposure to and understanding of Middle Eastern business and cultural practices.
- Results-oriented and willing to go the extra mile to get the best outcome.
Preferred
- Bilingual language skill that aligns with a key market for student recruitment
- Experience with Salesforce
