Undergraduate Programs Assistant

The Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) is one of the largest academic units at the University of British Columbia Vancouver campus, with over 1,100 undergraduate and 400 graduate students enrolled in its degree programs. The department is also engaged in a range of research activities, with over 50 research-track faculty members actively involved in their respective scholarly communities.

ECE’s Student Services and Engagement team is responsible for supporting all undergraduate and graduate degree programs in the department. The team works closely with multiple stakeholders, including faculty, staff, students and alumni, to ensure the delivery of an exceptional student experience. As a member of this team, the Undergraduate Programs Assistant is primarily responsible for proactively and independently carrying out administrative tasks that ensure the smooth operations of our undergraduate programs, as well as supporting our students and their experience in our department.

The Undergraduate Programs Assistant supports student advising, course registration, academic scheduling, adjudication of awards, student engagement initiatives, curriculum administration, and other program and student support as needed. Duties may vary depending on the time of year; therefore, the incumbent must be skilled at handling and prioritizing multiple tasks. Additionally, this position includes back-up reception duties for ECE’s administration services office as needed.

Organizational Status

The Undergraduate Programs Assistant is a member of the ECE Student Services and Engagement team. In addition to undergraduate affairs, this team is also responsible for graduate affairs, marketing and communications. The Manager, Student Services and Engagement, oversees this team, and the Undergraduate Programs Assistant reports directly to this position.

The incumbent works closely with and provides support to the Associate Head, Undergraduate Affairs, and other ECE faculty advisors as needed. They also routinely liaise with staff from other units, such as Engineering Academic Services, the Faculty of Applied Science Dean’s Office, and Enrolment Services.

Work Performed

Program Support

• Processes manual course registration requests, manages course waitlists, restricts enrolment for upper-year courses and performs other duties related to course management as required.
• Answers questions from students about degree requirements, academic progress, program completion and related matters.
• Reviews and updates student records in line with UBC policy.
• Processes program transfers.
• Assists with course scheduling, timetabling, final exam scheduling and room bookings for lectures, lab, tutorials and midterm exams.
• Coordinates with course instructors to ensure final course grades are uploaded in a timely manner.
• Works closely with the Associate Head, Undergraduate Affairs, and the Manager, Student Services and Engagement, to confirm which students have met requirements for graduation.
• Assists faculty with handling academic misconduct cases.
• Ensures students’ compliance with course prerequisites, co-requisites and required coursework by tracking their progress through the program; identifies problems and brings cases of missing marks or failed grades to faculty advisors for resolution.
• Assists faculty with adjudication of undergraduate awards; collects and reviews applications; submits nominations for external awards.
• Submits update requests to UBC’s Academic Calendar on behalf of the department.
• Assists faculty with uploading course grades and course materials to online platforms.
• Announces upcoming award deadlines, important events, exam information, curriculum changes and other relevant information via the appropriate mailing list(s) or other communication channels.

Student Advising and Engagement

• Acts as the primary point of contact for a large, diverse cohort of electrical, computer and biomedical engineering undergraduate students; advises students on a wide range of academic and non-academic matters.
• Holds drop-in undergraduate advising sessions in person and over Zoom; works collaboratively with team members to continuously improve the delivery of student advising services.
• Identifies students in crisis and recommends appropriate academic or non-academic resources and supports; forwards complex cases to the Manager, Student Services and Engagement, or the Associate Head, Undergraduate Affairs; refers students to appropriate on-campus resources such as Early Alert, Counselling Services, the UBC Wellness Centre, the Centre for Accessibility, UBC Student Health, etc.
• Uses the department’s request tracking system to respond to email inquiries from current and prospective undergraduate students.
• Supports the development of programming aimed at engaging ECE undergraduate students and enhancing their overall student experience.
• Supports communications staff in maintaining the undergraduate pages on the ECE website, as well as planning and participating in student-focused events, such as orientation, program information fairs and graduation.
• Provides guidance to ECE student teams on administrative matters such as event planning and submitting funding requests.

Curriculum Support

• Supports the ECE curriculum committee with compiling materials and collecting department feedback on curriculum matters (e.g., for adding new courses or making changes to existing courses).
• Informs program support staff in other UBC departments about ECE curriculum changes that may affect their students (e.g., other engineering departments, computer science).
• Attends ECE curriculum committee meetings and takes minutes to be distributed to the department.

General Administration

• Provides cross-coverage for routine graduate program support duties when team members are away for extended periods due to vacation or illness (e.g., course registration, advising, admissions).
• Provides cross-coverage for reception duties when administrative assistants are out of office (e.g., room bookings, access, assisting visitors).
• Makes recommendations and contributes to the development of student-oriented administrative processes and procedures.
• Documents job-specific processes and procedures and ensures that these materials are kept up-to-date.
• Performs other duties consistent with job classification as required.

Consequence of Error/Judgement

The Undergraduate Programs Assistant will often be the first point of contact for our department’s undergraduate students. The incumbent must become very familiar with all relevant departmental and university policies, and be able to interpret and apply these policies using sound judgment. The incumbent may occasionally encounter difficult situations and must act in a professional, tactful manner at all times. Failure to do so may negatively impact the reputation of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and the University of British Columbia. Errors resulting from poor judgment, inability to complete work or lack of tact in interactions could negatively impact the department’s programs, impede students’ academic progress or have a harmful effect on overall student well-being.

Certain duties will require a high level of confidentiality, particularly when dealing with students' personal information. At UBC, we are regulated by the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (FIPPA), which requires us to protect personal information from unauthorized collection, use or disclosure. Failure to comply with FIPPA increases the risk of a privacy breach, which could have negative consequences for the affected individuals and the department.

Supervision Received
The Undergraduate Programs Assistant reports directly to the Manager, Student Services and Engagement, and may also receive direction from the Department Head, the Associate Head, Undergraduate Affairs, and other staff as needed. The incumbent is expected to take initiative and independently manage tasks with minimal supervision by applying existing knowledge, using fact-finding skills and exercising sound judgment.

Supervision Given
The incumbent may be asked to (1) supervise and/or assign and oversee work of other student services staff or temporary student workers; (2) give input on hiring new staff or student workers for the Student Services and Engagement team; (3) provide feedback to management on the performance of new or inexperienced student services staff.

Minimum Qualifications

• High School graduation, plus one year post secondary diploma, plus four years of related experience, or an equivalent combination of education and experience.
• Willingness to respect diverse perspectives, including perspectives in conflict with one’s own.
• A demonstrated commitment to enhancing one’s own awareness, knowledge, and skills related to equity, diversity, and inclusion.

Preferred Qualifications

• Ability to prioritize and organize multiple tasks effectively to meet established timelines without undue stress.
• Ability to maintain accuracy and attention to detail.
• Ability to anticipate problems and issues and plan ahead.
• Ability to compose correspondence, forms, letters, presentations and other written materials using clear, concise business English.
• Ability to understand and apply policies, procedures, and instructions.
• Ability to provide quality service to a diverse group of students and faculty in a courteous, patient and knowledgeable manner.
• Ability to provide effective and appropriate guidance and counsel students in person, over the phone, in writing and over Zoom, as well as to make appropriate referrals as needed.
• Ability to exercise tact and discretion.
• Ability to effectively answer students’ questions and resolve their concerns in a calm, non-confrontational manner.
• Ability to assess situations and make decisions that fall outside the scope of established policy.
• Ability to exercise sound judgment.
• Ability to work effectively with minimal supervision.
• Ability to work independently and in a team environment with a high degree of efficiency.
• Ability to identify and correct missing and incomplete data.
• Ability to use Workday for student services applications.
• Ability to take and transcribe accurate meeting minutes.
• Ability to perform word processing at 65 words per minute.
• Ability to plan and execute student-focused events.
• Prior experience in a student services role and/or familiarity with student-related university policies, procedures and/or systems is an asset, but not required.