Title: Graduate Programs Manager
Executive Area: Academic Affairs
College/School/MBU: College of Education
Department: Dean - College of Education
Work Location: Amherst
Schedule: Full time
Work Arrangement: Hybrid
Job Summary
The Graduate Programs Manager supports the social justice mission of the College and reports to the College Graduate Program Director. The position provides leadership and manages the College-level administration of graduate programs in support of student success. Duties involve advanced problem solving and increasing levels of independent decision-making in the day-to-day administrative and operational functions of the College’s graduate programs, including doctoral, master’s specialist degrees, and graduate certificate programs, which currently serve 500+ enrolled graduate students in Education.
The position collaborates with the Graduate School, various University offices, and faculty and staff in the College to facilitate effective and equitable admissions processes, advising, dissertation defenses, and other areas related to graduate student success. In addition, the role has expanded to include direct responsibility for graduate degree eligibility review and approval, doctoral milestone administration and data entry, and comprehensive verification of student degree completion processes across multiple systems, including Kuali and Spire.
The Graduate Programs Manager serves as a key subject matter expert on evolving Graduate School and Registrar policies, independently interpreting procedural changes and implementing new workflows at the College level. The role also includes managing system-driven degree processing workflows, identifying and resolving discrepancies in student records, and performing manual audits where centralized reporting is not available, particularly for graduate certificate completion and degree conferral.
This position supports a high volume and complexity of student progress tracking across multiple degree types and overlapping graduation cycles, while also triaging and redirecting inquiries from faculty, staff, and students across departments to ensure accurate and timely resolution of graduate program-related issues. These expanded responsibilities reflect a significant increase in operational scope, systems accountability, and independent authority in support of graduate student success.
Essential Functions
Provides diplomatic problem solving and leadership in the day-to-day administrative and operational functions of the graduate programs for the College of Education. Collaborates with the Graduate School, university offices and staff for admissions, milestones, adviser and committee memberships, student defenses and other activities related to graduate student progress. Attends Graduate School related meetings as needed.
Serves as a subject matter expert on Graduate School systems, policies, and procedures, interpreting changes and implementing new processes at the College level.
Advises students on academic requirements and satisfactory progress towards degree, with special attention to program requirements and rules; proactively advise students who have not completed their requirements or are not in satisfactory progress. Updates student files with advising notes and progress documentation as appropriate. Alerts Graduate Program Director with student concerns. Create and maintain comprehensive, accurate and organized student files, including online files.
Provides advanced troubleshooting and case management for complex student scenarios, including degree eligibility issues, milestone discrepancies, and graduation delays.
Participates in College of Education events, workshops or programs that support recruitment, retention, academic progress and career success for graduate students.
Conducts research, collect data and create databases to provide the Graduate Program Director with a variety of reports that support requests from University offices or other organizations.
Creates surveys, analyze data and develop reports that help support graduate program planning and programmatic excellence.
Develops and maintains independent tracking systems and databases to monitor student progress, degree completion, and graduate certificate outcomes where centralized reporting tools are limited or unavailable.
Monitors, initiate updates and provide information for graduate program web pages or other communication needs. Works to ensure timely and comprehensive messaging to students and other audiences consistent with the strategic communication goals of the programs.
Adapts to evolving Graduate School and Registrar processes, assuming expanded responsibility and accountability as systems and procedures change.
Independently reviews and approves graduate degree eligibility for master’s and specialist programs within the Kuali system, ensuring all institutional and Graduate School requirements are met prior to advisor and Graduate Program Director review.
Manages and executes end-to-end processing of electronic degree eligibility workflows (Kuali/Spire), including routing, verification, troubleshooting system issues, and resolving discrepancies in coordination with the Graduate School and University Registrar.
Administers and tracks doctoral student milestones, including direct data entry, validation, and approval of multiple milestone requirements within Spire, ensuring compliance with Graduate School policies for a large doctoral student population.
Performs comprehensive audits of graduate student records, including manual verification of graduate certificate completion and degree conferral when system reporting is unavailable or limited.
Identifies system gaps and procedural inefficiencies (e.g., Kuali and Spire limitations), escalates issues, and proposes process improvements to enhance operational effectiveness and student outcomes.
Serves as a central point of contact to triage and redirect high-volume inquiries from departments, faculty, and students, ensuring accurate guidance and efficient resolution of graduate program-related issues.
Supports high-volume, complex degree processing across multiple program types (PhD, EdD, EdS, MEd, and certificates), including concurrent management of overlapping graduation cycles and requirements.
Performs special projects and other duties as assigned by the Graduate Program Director showing adaptability and flexibility to accomplish goals.
Other Functions
Works collaboratively and effectively to promote teamwork, diversity, equality and inclusiveness.
Performs related duties as assigned or required to meet Departmental, College, Executive Area/Division, and University goals and objectives.
Understands responsibilities with respect to Title IX, Clery and other compliance requirements.
Demonstrates capacity, skill and willingness to engage students and contribute to student success.
Minimum Qualifications
Bachelor’s degree and 3 years of experience in academic or research program administration, or an Associate's degree and 5 years' experience in academic or research program administration or a high school diploma and 8 years' experience in academic or research program administration, preferably in an academic environment.
Excellent ability to work both independently and to be part of an effective team with a highly cooperative and collaborative work style. The ability to adapt and work effectively as the situation changes.
Excellent interpersonal communication skills with the ability to interact effectively, and create and maintain harmonious relationships with a diverse population of staff, faculty, students and off-campus constituents.
Flexibility to work with initiative and willingness to take on a variety of tasks related to the successful operation and administration of the unit. Ability to work effectively under pressure and varying situations with independence, competent judgment and discretion. Extensive organizational skills and attention to detail with the ability to complete assignments in a timely manner, balancing the demands of concurrent and potentially competing projects.
Excellent ability to collect data from multiple sources and create new reports that add value to program goals. Excellent computer usage skills including email, spreadsheets (including formulas), word processing, and databases.
Must have the ability to stay on task and work productively with a minimum of supervision. Ability to write concisely, express thoughts clearly and develop ideas in a logical sequence.
The ability to investigate a situation, seek out additional information and resolve discrepancies. The ability to think through problems, organize information, identify key factors and underlying causes to generate solutions.
Ability to read, understand, apply and explain rules, regulations and policies/procedures related to duties. Ability to understand and follow complex oral and written instructions and create effective and efficient work processes. Ability to exercise sound judgment and maintain confidentiality.
Understands responsibilities with respect to conflicts of interest and behaves in ways consistent with both the law and with University policy.
Contributes toward creating a positive and respectful workplace defined by personal and professional competence, integrity, and collaboration.
Understands and contributes to implementation of departmental and institutional goals for achieving non-discrimination and creating a respectful, inclusive environment that is supportive of diversity.
Uses access to sensitive and/or not yet public university related information only in the performance of the responsibilities of position and exercises care to prevent unnecessary disclosure to others.
Preferred Qualifications
Bachelors degree.
Additional Details
The College of Education includes 3 departments and serves approximately 400 undergraduate students and 400 graduate students. At any one time, the College maintains approximately 240 employee appointments, including tenure system faculty, part-time and full-time lecturers, permanent and temporary staff members, post-doctoral research associates, graduate teaching assistants, and student employees.
Working Conditions
Work is performed in a standard office or indoor university environment and involves minimal physical exertion.
Work Schedule and Work Arrangement
Monday-Friday 8:30 am – 5:00 pm (40 hours per week)
Required to work occasional nights and weekends.
This position has the opportunity for a hybrid work schedule, which is defined by the University as an arrangement where an employee’s work is regularly performed at a location other than the campus workspace for a portion of the week. As this position falls within the Professional Staff Union, it is subject to the terms and conditions of the Professional Staff Union collective bargaining agreement.
Salary Information
Pay Grade: PSSAP Grade 26
Special Instructions for Applicants
Along with the application, please submit a resume and a cover letter outlining their interest in the role. References will be checked at the finalist stage. Please be prepared to provide the contact information for three (3) professional references.
This position will remain open for the time period required by any applicable collective bargaining agreement and will continue until a suitable candidate pool is identified. Interested applicants are strongly encouraged to apply early.
