Job title: Head of Belonging and Support
Working hours: 35-hours per week (to be worked flexibly)
Salary: Grade E £52,055 - £55,225.18
Reporting to: Chief Executive
Direct Reports: Advice Manager, Student Activities Manager
Role Purpose:
The Head of Belonging and Support is a senior strategic leader responsible for shaping how students connect, participate, and access support across the Guild. This role exists to ensure that every student- regardless of background, mode, or location of study - can find a place within the student community where they feel safe, confident, and able to engage meaningfully with their university experience.
This role leads the Guild’s “Belonging system”: the infrastructure, communities, and support structures that enable participation, connection, and personal development. This includes student-led activity, communities, volunteering, and independent advice and support services. Together, these form the foundation upon which student confidence, identity, and engagement are built.
The postholder is responsible for designing and leading coherent, enabling systems that reduce barriers to participation and make engagement simple, accessible, and inclusive. This includes ensuring that:
- students can easily navigate opportunities to get involved
- participation pathways are clear and progressive
- support services remove, rather than reinforce, barriers to engagement
A key expectation of the role is to create sustainable, system-led approaches that provide clear structures, consistent experiences, and scalable models of delivery.
As part of a dual leadership model with the Head of Student Voice and Influence, this role ensures that participation feeds leadership, and that students who connect and engage through belonging systems are able to progress into wider leadership and representation opportunities across the Guild.
As a member of the Senior Leadership Team, the postholder contributes to overall organisational strategy, culture, and performance, helping position the Guild as a trusted, enabling, and student-centred organisation, with strong institutional partnerships and a clear contribution to student wellbeing, retention, and success.
Further details about the role responsibilities, key accountabilities, and person specification can be found on our website - www.exeterguild.com/your-guild/featured-pages/jobs