Fern Best

Background

About Fern Best

As a Student Affairs professional with a master’s degree in Management and Post Graduate Diploma in Educational Management and Administration, my academic qualifications as well as my experiential knowledge gained over ten years managing the portfolio of Student Success, illustrates notable accomplishment in developing frameworks for continuous improvement in program onboarding, academic advising, integrated student services and student retention. This required the development of various support services and working with faculty, students and the external community to fill gaps in the student support structure. Further, it necessitated developing a critical path for all onboarding and retention events, designing a customer service blueprint to enhance the student experience, managing budgets and preparing and presenting plans to senior executives. I am proficient in my knowledge of academic and governance structures within higher education and the implementation and evaluation of key registrarial functions. Having developed and implemented protocols for increased efficiency in onboarding and advising, significantly improving student satisfaction and retention while reducing errors in enrolment and student petitions. These policy and data driven initiatives guided the revision of the Advising Model to respond to students’ needs.