Associate Regional Director Role Overview

A leading UK university has engaged Excelon Associates to appoint an Associate Regional Director for South Asia, based in Hyderabad, India. This is a senior, delivery-focused leadership role that owns inbound student recruitment across India and the wider region, the institution’s most strategically significant international market, with clear accountability for enrollment targets, conversion performance, and pipeline health.

The university pairs careers-first education with a commitment to widening access, inclusive and sustainable routes into higher education, and staying ahead of emerging practice. It is looking for a forward-thinking leader who works well in an agile environment, embraces new technology, and helps shape a culture of continuous improvement.

The role is central to launching and operating the university’s new India Hub in Chennai, working closely with the Global Hubs team to embed sustainable, in-market recruitment capability. In short, it moves the region from a strong regional approach toward a coordinated, India-wide one, anchored by the new hub. It also calls for working familiarity with UK Visas and Immigration (UKVI) requirements and the agent, partner, and sponsor landscape that shapes UK study recruitment across South Asia.

Scope and Structure

The Directorate

The role sits within the client’s External Relations Directorate, an integrated service bringing together communications, engagement, marketing, recruitment, and conversion. The directorate spans Communications and Engagement, Marketing, Recruitment and Conversion, Outreach and Access, Design and Digital, Events and Advancement, and the International Office, and favors a digital-first mindset with a genuine appetite for transformational change.

Scope and Strategic Focus

• South Asia is one of the university’s primary international recruitment source markets, and the role is predominantly anchored to India.
• Significant time is spent in-market supporting recruitment delivery, partner engagement, and the launch and operation of the Chennai India Hub.
• Leads and coordinates a distributed regional recruitment model, managing traveling sales teams across South Asia for consistent performance, strong market intelligence, and alignment to national priorities.
• Translates regional insight into national strategy, working with the Chennai hub to align local delivery with a coordinated, India-wide recruitment, reputation, and engagement approach.

Reporting Line and Team

• Reports directly to the Director of Recruitment and Admissions and works closely with the Global Hubs team, academic schools, admissions, compliance, finance, and marketing.
• Line manages regional recruitment staff across South Asia, including a regional recruitment manager and officers in India and Nepal, with matrix oversight of a third-party operating center in Pune.

Key Duties and Responsibilities

Recruitment Performance and Delivery

• Full accountability for institutional student recruitment targets, conversion KPIs, and diversification objectives across India and South Asia, as agreed by the Executive Board.
• Ownership of regional forecasting, pipeline management, and recovery plans where delivery is underperforming.
• Keeping regional activity aligned with institutional priorities, risk appetite, and compliance requirements.
• Supporting the move from a regionally segmented model to a nationally coordinated platform, so all activity feeds broader goals around market share, brand reputation, and long-term sustainability.
• Embedding careers-led recruitment, partnering with the Chennai hub, industry stakeholders, and alumni networks on immersive engagement such as careers and skills pop-ups, employer panels, and innovation events.

Key Stakeholder Relationships

• Coordinating delivery across the international recruitment lifecycle with the Pune operating center, marketing and communications, Global Hubs, academic partnership teams, and collaborative partners along the student journey.
• Working with academic schools and leadership, international admissions, compliance, alumni teams, and finance to keep delivery joined up.
• Maintaining strong external relationships with education agents, institutional partners, and regional education bodies.

India Hub (Chennai) Leadership and Alignment

• Playing a leading role in the establishment, launch, and operational success of the India Hub in Chennai.
• Partnering with the Global Hubs team to embed recruitment operations, partner management, and conversion activity within the hub model.
• Co-designing campaigns with in-country marketing that reflect regional nuance across the north, west, and south, balancing consistent brand positioning with local relevance.
• Driving reputational activity in-market, working with central and in-market teams on opportunities such as national awards, media engagement, and thought leadership.
• Integrating alumni advocacy, mentorship, and employer connections into recruitment and conversion, and supporting articulation and progression pathways into the UK campus alongside academic and partnership teams, including engagement with government bodies, sponsors, and scholarship providers.

Line Management and People Leadership

• Leading and developing regional recruitment teams and in-country representatives, including a regional recruitment manager and officers in India and Nepal.
• Setting regional operational priorities aligned with institutional targets and monitoring performance against application, offer, and enrollment objectives.
• Ensuring compliance with UKVI requirements and university policies in market, and that the Pune operating center delivers against agreed SLAs.
• Leading a high-performance culture built on delivery, transparency, and ownership, with clear roles, responsibilities, and reporting lines.

Cross-Institutional Working, Availability, and Travel

• Acting as the senior regional lead for India and South Asia, engaging university stakeholders through clear, evidence-based reporting and recommendations.
• Providing data-driven insight that informs institutional decisions, policy changes, and investment priorities for South Asia source markets.
• Operating flexibly to support UK-based leadership, including regular availability during UK business hours and attendance at scheduled meetings, priority events, leadership forums, and agreed conferences.
• Planning and approving all travel in line with agreed recruitment priorities and budgets.

Who Thrives as an Associate Regional Director

The strongest candidates read this as a delivery role first. They are comfortable owning a number, enrollment and conversion targets for the university’s most important international market, and they have the regional knowledge to back it up: a real track record across India and South Asia, fluency in the agent and partner landscape, and the judgment to turn market intelligence into a plan that holds up through a full recruitment cycle.

Just as important is the ability to lead at a distance. The role coordinates traveling sales teams, in-country officers across India and Nepal, and a third-party operating center in Pune, so people who do well here set clear priorities, hold a high-performance culture together across locations, and keep UKVI compliance and governance built into how the region runs rather than bolted on afterward.

Finally, this is a build. The Chennai India Hub is new, and the person who enjoys this work is the one who likes standing something up in-market, aligning local delivery to a national strategy, and partnering across marketing, admissions, alumni, and academic teams to make it stick.

About Excelon Associates

Excelon Associates is a retained executive search firm founded in 2007, headquartered in Asheville, North Carolina, with offices in Boca Raton and Delray Beach, Florida. The firm recruits leadership and specialized talent across higher education, healthcare, financial services, and government, including international university recruitment.

This Associate Regional Director search is being conducted on behalf of a client university, with an Excelon recruiter as the single point of contact through screening, interviews, and offer. You can explore the firm’s higher education recruitment practice, browse current open roles, or review recent campaigns to see the kinds of searches Excelon runs. For broader context on UK universities recruiting internationally, see Universities UK International.

Frequently Asked Questions

How to Apply for This Associate Regional Director Role

The duties outlined here give a general overview of the role and are not exhaustive. All employees are expected to support equal opportunities within a diverse, multicultural environment. Excelon does not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, sex, gender, sexual orientation, national origin, marital or veteran status, disability, age, or any other characteristic protected by law.