The British Council builds connections, understanding and trust between people in the UK and other countries through arts and culture, education and the English language.
We work in two ways - directly with individuals to transform their lives, and with governments and partners to make a bigger difference for the longer term, creating benefit for millions of people all over the world. We help young people to gain the skills, confidence and connections they are looking for to realise their potential and to participate in strong and inclusive communities. We support them to learn English, to get a high-quality education and to gain internationally recognised qualifications. Our work in arts and culture stimulates creative expression and exchange and nurtures creative enterprise. We connect the best of the UK with the world and the best of the world with the UK.
These connections lead to an understanding of each other's strengths and of the challenges and values that we share. This builds trust between people in the UK and other nations which endures even when official relations may be strained. We work on the ground in more than 100 countries. In 2019-20 we connected with 80 million people directly and with 791 million overall, including online and through our broadcasts and publications.
Context
Education is a powerful vector for cultural relations activity - especially as access to high quality education at all levels is more important than ever. The UK's strength in education makes it an excellent partner for people-to-people, institution-to-institution and government-to-government connections. It is one of the four core pillars of the British Council's cultural engagement activity.
There are four global programmes within Higher Education and Science:
The Going Global Partnerships programme supports connections at the institution to institution and government to government levels in higher education and TVET and is linked to the jurisdictions KPI (C3). It aims to build strategic, mutually beneficial partnerships in tertiary education between the UK and other countries, and has four outcome strands:
- Enabling research: supporting research, knowledge, and innovation collaboration to address local and global challenges and promote inclusive growth.
- Internationalising institutions: creating an enabling environment while supporting institutions and individuals to benefit from internationalisation.
- Strengthening systems: improving the quality and efficiency of institutions and systems.
- Enhancing student outcomes: improving the qualities of global graduates (e.g. soft skills, employability, community outcomes).
The International Student Mobility and Marketing programme seeks to position the UK as the first country of choice globally for international students and is linked to the KPIs relating to attracting international students to the UK (C1, C2, C4 and C7).
The Global Alumni programme aims to take advantage of the fact that alumni of UK HEIs understand, feel goodwill towards, and are likely to want to continue to be connected to, the UK. It is linked to the Alumni KPIs (C5, C6 and C8). It recognises that alumni can be knowledgeable and skilled agents for change who can become instrumental in advancing social and economic development in their home countries as well as advocates for the UK and UK education (thus also supporting the attracting international students KPI).
The Insight & Engagement global programme supports the positioning of the UK as a contributor and convenor of knowledge about international HE and TVET globally. As such it supports delivery of all the KPIs. It will include a programme of regional policy dialogues culminating in a Going Global conference, and Regional and Global Insight Hubs
The Going Global Partnerships programme is expected to require the most support (60% of the post) as the MEL is complex. The other three programmes are 10-15% each.
There is also an outward mobility programme including Language Assistants and Generation UK China, both funded by the Department for Education. While we do not have a KPI in this area, this area is a high priority for the Department for Education as evidenced by the fact they provide considerable funding for it.
The Opportunity
Role Purpose
Lead Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (MEL) across Higher Education and Science, designing and implementing a results-focused monitoring, evaluation, and learning strategy to build robust evidence and generate impact at scale.
Ensure that our MEL strategy enables us to report accurately and in a timely way against the FCDO KPIs and other corporate KPIs, including EDI.Work with the corporate Evaluation, Evidence and Learning team to ensure the HE and Science MEL strategy is consistent with other areas of Cultural Engagement.
Main accountabilities but not limited to the following:
Sector/subject expertise
- Lead a knowledge and learning strategy for HE and Science that addresses existing barriers to learning and drives agile, programme management practices across the HE and Science portfolio.
- Improve how the organisation learns and uses integrated evidence to inform decision making, planning and reduce the risk of scrutiny from FCDO, ICAI and other stakeholders.
Consultancy, analysis and problem solving
- Work in partnership with the Head of Evaluation and corporate planning team to develop and embed the structures, quality standards and data collection systems necessary to create a step-change in how the British Council delivers evidence of impact and value for money in real time
- Champion the new model for corporate reporting (including REF/corporate KPI/FCDO KPI reporting) across the HE and Science global network, leading on its development and practical use across the global network
- To ensure the REF and Value for Money are at the heart of the global HE and Science portfolio to ensure we are impact and evidence-led.
Product Development
- Provide consistent, accessible, high quality, evidence and standards across our global HE and Science programmes (e.g. Impact Dashboard)
- Conduct external benchmarking, drawing on data from researchers, academics, and evaluation specialists, to draw in best approaches and methods to ensure an integrated approach to providing evidence.
- Engage with sector specialists and external consultants involved in both business development and delivery, to ensure coherence of approach and thematic integrity - thus facilitating the development of cutting-edge evidence and knowledge.
Leadership & Management
- Lead a new Research, Insight and Evaluation Panel across HE and Science, in partnership with the Research, Policy and Insight team to ensure all investments in research and evaluation support delivery of organisational strategy, produce high quality outputs and result in the application of knowledge.
Relationship & Stakeholder Management
- Work in partnership with the Head of Evaluation, Head of HE and Science and Regional evaluation teams to build organisational capability and capacity to ensure interventions are rooted in robust evidence and analysis.
- Develop peer/personal networks within and outside the BC to enhance own knowledge and expertise, ensure trust and engagement, and gain buy-in. These should include:
- Major donors, business partners, research councils, UKCDR, UKRI, UUKI and UK government departments including BEIS and FCDO.
- Evaluation departments and programme leads in key Whitehall departments (BEIS D MEL group), building relationships and aligning approaches to evidence and evaluation.
- Staff in the corporate / regional research and evaluation units, maximising opportunities to draw on big data, outcome analysis, and trend analysis where relevant, enhancing VFM in data management.
- Staff in key departments related to the procurement, commissioning and management of high quality HE and Science evidence and evaluation to ensure that high standards are developed and maintained.
Commercial and Business Development
- Develop a sustainable global programme of interventions with partners with a view to growing the turnover and increasing sponsorship.
- Use insights to understand current and prospective business development opportunities for the British Council.
- Manage the global pipeline for ISMM, ensuring high quality data and documentation to the Partnerships and Contract Approvals Board.
- Leads the development of bids, proposals and business cases, working with the Partnerships and Business Development Team.
- Meet agreed financial targets and global/corporate standards across the global, regional and local portfolio.
EDI
- To actively contribute to an inclusive and anti-racist organisational culture, being aware of your own biases, and taking action to mitigate against these. Ensuring people feel valued and are treated equitably, with support for people's well-being and mental health.
- Understand the British Council's approach to equality, diversity and inclusion and how it applies to your role and make time for learning and development relating to EDI and anti racism.
Role specific knowledge and experience:
The main essential knowledge and experience points that we are looking for you to evidence are:
- Experience in the development of strategic approaches to the generation and use of evidence and of evaluation methods particularly within an HE and Science/Research context...... click apply for full job details