Durban-Based Institutional Research & Analytics Associate

MANCOSA; Durban; On-site; ZAR 420,000 - 660,000; Full time

Job summary

MANCOSA, a DHET registered and CHE accredited private higher education distance education provider, invites applications for a Senior Research Associate in Durban. This role focuses on specialist research, analytics and technical support across the Institutional Research and Publishing Unit and Doctoral Research Office.

The Senior Research Associate will drive institutional intelligence, support doctoral programme quality, and enable evidence-informed decision-making through advanced

Qualifications

• 3–5 years' relevant experience within higher education.
• Experience in institutional research and advanced quantitative research.
• Experience in analysing large and complex datasets.
• Experience in business intelligence, research reporting and research methodology.
• Experience in higher education information systems, data governance and enterprise data environments would be advantageous.
• Advanced research and analytical capability.
• Strong quantitative data analysis and research methodology skills.
• Proficiency in SQL, Python, Power BI, data modelling, database querying and ETL processes.
• Strong academic writing, editing, reporting and research mentoring skills.
• Ability to translate complex data into accessible institutional intelligence for technical and non-technical audiences.

Responsibilities

• Conduct and support institutional research projects, programme evaluations and benchmarking studies.
• Analyse complex datasets using descriptive, inferential and predictive methods to generate institutional intelligence.
• Integrate data from institutional systems to support planning, reporting and decision-making.
• Develop dashboards, reports, scorecards and executive summaries.
• Develop and automate analytical workflows using SQL, Python, Power BI and related BI technologies.
• Support data engineering, data governance and ETL processes.
• Collaborate with IT, Data Management and other units on intelligence initiatives.
• Explore AI applications in institutional research and reporting.
• Support doctoral research methodology workshops and advanced data analysis.
• Provide technical support for research software and reporting of findings.

Skills

Strong quantitative data analysis

Academic writing

Stakeholder engagement

Project management

Collaborative working

Mentoring

Tools

SQL

Python

Power BI

ETL processes

Data modelling

SQL querying

Job description

MANCOSA, a DHET registered and CHE accredited private higher education distance education provider, invites applications for a Senior Research Associate in Durban. This role focuses on specialist research, analytics and technical support across the Institutional Research and Publishing Unit and Doctoral Research Office.

The Senior Research Associate will drive institutional intelligence, support doctoral programme quality, and enable evidence-informed decision-making through advanced