[Hiring] Higher Education Strategy & Operations Expert @24-MAG

Role Description

We are sharing a specialised part-time consulting opportunity for experienced higher education professionals with deep expertise in academic programmes, university operations, student success, research administration, accreditation, and institutional strategy. This role supports advanced AI evaluation work focused on realistic university and higher education workflows. Selected experts will design complex institutional scenarios, develop reference outputs, and create evaluation rubrics that reflect how experienced faculty members and university administrators approach academic planning, governance, enrolment, research administration, and institutional decision-making.

Key Responsibilities

• Academic Programmes & Curriculum
  • Develop realistic scenarios involving curriculum design, academic programme development, and programme review.
  • Create tasks covering learning outcomes, course structures, academic standards, and programme assessment.
  • Evaluate academic plans for coherence, institutional fit, and educational quality.
  • Apply accreditation and curriculum-review frameworks where relevant.
  • Produce reference academic plans and programme-development materials.
• Student Affairs & Enrolment Management
  • Design scenarios involving admissions, enrolment planning, retention, and student-success initiatives.
  • Develop tasks covering student services, academic support, advising, and persistence strategies.
  • Evaluate institutional approaches to recruitment, retention, and student engagement.
  • Assess trade-offs involving enrolment goals, student outcomes, resources, and institutional priorities.
  • Produce reference analyses and recommendations for higher education leadership.
• Faculty Governance & Institutional Leadership
  • Create tasks involving faculty governance, shared governance, academic committees, and institutional decision-making.
  • Develop scenarios involving faculty senate processes and multi-stakeholder consultation.
  • Evaluate governance decisions for procedural soundness and organisational realism.
  • Assess communication between faculty, administrators, boards, and institutional leadership.
  • Produce reference administrator- and board-level communications.
• Research Administration & Grant Compliance
  • Develop scenarios involving research administration, sponsored programmes, and grant compliance.
  • Create tasks covering proposal processes, research oversight, funding requirements, and administrative controls.
  • Evaluate research-management decisions for accuracy, completeness, and institutional compliance.
  • Apply familiarity with research administration platforms such as Cayuse, InfoEd, or comparable systems.
  • Produce reference research-administration documentation and analyses.
• Accreditation & Institutional Planning
  • Develop tasks involving accreditation reviews, institutional assessment, and strategic planning.
  • Apply relevant accreditation standards and quality-assurance frameworks.
  • Create scenarios involving institutional budgets, resource allocation, and long-term planning.
  • Evaluate evidence, documentation, and institutional narratives prepared for review.
  • Produce reference accreditation materials and strategic planning outputs.
• Higher Education Systems & Operations
  • Develop scenarios involving platforms such as Banner, Workday Student, Canvas, Blackboard, and comparable systems.
  • Apply familiarity with admissions, advancement, CRM, and student-information workflows.
  • Evaluate operational processes across academic and administrative functions.
  • Structure complex institutional information into clear professional outputs.
  • Assess whether technology-supported workflows align with institutional objectives.
• AI Evaluation & Rubric Development
  • Design expert-level evaluation tasks across higher education workflows.
  • Draft reference outputs demonstrating authentic professional and institutional judgement.
  • Develop rubrics that distinguish experienced higher education reasoning from generic academic or policy-level responses.
  • Review AI-generated outputs for accuracy, institutional awareness, and practical relevance.
  • Identify subtle reasoning errors, unrealistic recommendations, and missing stakeholder considerations.
  • Provide clear written rationale supporting evaluation decisions.

Qualifications

• 5+ years of professional experience in higher education as faculty, an academic administrator, or a senior operational professional.
• Experience within a college, university, research institution, or higher education system.
• Direct ownership of academic programmes, enrolment or retention initiatives, research administration, accreditation, or institutional priorities.
• Strong understanding of curriculum development, student affairs, shared governance, accreditation, and university operations.
• Familiarity with platforms such as Banner, Workday Student, Canvas, Blackboard, Cayuse, InfoEd, or comparable higher education systems.
• Practical understanding of university budgeting, enrolment management, institutional planning, and stakeholder governance.
• Ability to communicate complex academic and institutional reasoning clearly and precisely in writing.
• Experience developing curricula, evaluation rubrics, accreditation materials, faculty training, or institutional documentation is advantageous.

Engagement Details

• Part-time independent contractor engagement.
• Fully remote.
• Flexible scheduling based on project requirements.
• Compensation: $50–$60/hour.
• Projects may be extended, shortened, or concluded based on project needs and performance.
• Work must be completed without using confidential or proprietary information belonging to any employer, student, institution, client, or other third party.
• H1-B and STEM OPT support is unavailable for this engagement.