In Conversation with Laura Nagle
Laura Nagle has had an incredible career journey in professional services starting out as an administrative assistant; flash forward, and she is now a Faculty Student Experience Manager at the University of Greenwich.
Many opportunities have arisen during Laura’s journey, and every single one has been taken, creating an unforgettable story.
Find out what opportunities had arisen to lead Laura into a Manager role within Higher Education.
Watch the full interview with Laura Nagle
How did your journey in Higher Education start?
Laura decided during sixth form, that university wasn’t the route she wanted to take, however after completing her A-Levels she did in fact embark on her journey as an administrative assistant within London.
Shortly after developing skills for admin roles, Laura took her first step into the Higher Education sector and secured an entry-level role as an administrative assistant, in the International Centre.
It was the perfect start for her journey within Higher Education, working closely with students, and academics.
After 18 months, Laura decided it was time to progress but stay working within the sector, as she believes the sector is a great place to work, she loves the difference and the change that came with working in HE, as no two days are the same. She swiftly moved on and started working at the University of the Arts.
Has your career in higher education changed?
Laura feels she has been very lucky with how her career has progressed over the years. It has been within the last 4 years that she has really shown more of an interest in higher level roles.
Laura started her journey at the University of Arts, and then progressed to London Business School to work as a program administrator. This particular role gave her the full cycle for students.
She found the role really interesting as it was a small university but gave her the opportunity to get involved in the day to day with what was going on, with the programs, modules, and gain close relationships with different departments. Giving her an idea of what it is like to work in an institution and see things from all different areas, which encouraged Laura to progress.
Laura later moved to the University of Kent seeking progression, where she worked for a couple of years. Taking on the Office staff supervisor role, which allowed her to be more involved with the postgraduate opportunities within the School of Biosciences.
Taking this opportunity allowed Laura to gain more exposure to decision making, leadership, and ownership. The role lasted a couple of years to where she moved back to her roots in London working for UCL.
Laura had two roles at UCL, both of which had more responsibilities than previous roles.
Senior program administrator
Laura started of as a senior program administrator, which was a senior supervisor role, where she learnt to take responsibility for a team for the first time.
Immediately Laura felt she had made a huge jump into a whole new world she really wasn’t familiar with, but the role gave her valuable experience, which then led her to working for the Department of Biochemical Engineering at UCL. Here, she became a postdoc manager for a short period of time.
Laura had come across opportunities that she just couldn’t say no to, and moved to the University of Greenwich, where she became Deputy Faculty Administrative Services Manager.
Later on, during her new opportunity, Laura decided to take a step back to gain more experience, which she felt was a great idea, as it led her to become the campus academic services manager two years ago.
Within the role she was responsible for managing a team, however back in September the University had another change and she became the Student Experience Manager, which was a whole new change for Laura, but an exciting one at that.
Laura has found her roles have all seemed to have fallen in place at the right time. But overall, with the HE environment, there are always so many opportunities.
What have been the most defining moments in your career?
Laura felt she has been quite lucky over the years and has had some really interesting projects and activities, but one that always comes to mind is when she worked for London Business School.
The marketing subject area was involved in helping to plan and co-ordinate a major conference, which looked to bring the American Marketing Association conference to the UK.
Laura assisted with the project, and the team had an amazing couple of days.
Since that opportunity Laura’s role has progressed, giving her more exposure to become involved in slightly more higher-level meetings, topics, and giving her more confidence to get involved in more things. She has been asked to attend more meetings and be involved in helping to decide processes.
Since Laura’s role has progressed, she has found her responsibilities have increased, and she now has more of an impact in what she is trying to achieve daily.
Laura’s main highlights were watching her roles improve, watching her opportunities grow, and just having more exposure to things and soaking it all up.
What kind of opportunities has your career in education opened up for you?
Many opportunities have arisen over the years for Laura, but she can safely say working in higher education and working for some amazing institutions has given her so many opportunities.
When Laura worked for London Business School, they had a great developmental program, which gave staff the option to do external qualifications. Laura found a course with the Open University studying international development.
LBS were happy to support her, and she ended up doing a degree over six years, whilst working full time at LBS.
They paid for her degree; Laura expresses how amazing the course was and the fact that LBS paid for her degree with full support.
She found University of Greenwich has been amazing, in the actual team training, support and development.
In 2022-23 Laura completed an Aurora program, which is a female leadership development program.
Recently she embarked on a senior leadership apprenticeship again through the University, who are kindly sponsoring her.
Laura is hopeful that by the end of her apprenticeship; she will have a PGDip as part of the executive MBA program and become a chartered manager through the CMI.
What key lessons have you taken away from working in the Higher Education?
Laura’s key takeaways she has taken from working in HE is the need and the importance of collaboration with your colleagues. She explains this is not a sector or a role you can do on your own.
It is an ever-changing dynamic and the politics and rules, including the regulations, are changing all the time.
One success Laura reflects on is her happiness, as she was more than happy to go out and speak with people from various departments.
What advice would you share for people wanting to progress in their careers?
Laura advises anyone wanting to progress their career within higher education to go for it, the HE sector is huge.
She has seen many colleagues who have started off in one department and progressed to a completely different department.
From experience Laura points out, you will find a lot of universities will not necessarily look at how you directly match the skills required for a particular role. They will look at what you can do, what you have done, and how many transferable skills you have got that could move into that role.
Laura’s final advice is, if you want to progress with HE, then you’ll absolutely be able to do so, and keep an eye out for the training that is available.
Explore other In Conversation with Professional Services stories:
- Lia Henry -Talent Acquisition Specialist
- Daniel Parker-Wade – Learning and Development Specialist
- Michele – Head of Employability
Laura Nagle Bio
With a strong background in student engagement, support, and higher education practice, Laura Nagle has built a career dedicated to enhancing the student experience across the university lifecycle. As a Student Experience Manager, Laura brings extensive expertise in developing inclusive, student-centred initiatives that improve wellbeing, retention, and academic success.
Laura has a proven track record of leading cross-functional projects, collaborating with academic and professional services teams, and using student insight to inform evidence-based decision-making. Alongside professional practice, Laura is currently undertaking the CMI Level 7 Senior Leader Apprenticeship as part of ongoing professional development, further strengthening strategic leadership capability and organisational impact within higher education. Laura is also an alumna of the Aurora leadership programme, reflecting a continued commitment to developing leadership practice and supporting progression in the sector.
Passionate about creating environments where students can thrive, Laura has contributed to initiatives that strengthen community, belonging, and engagement, while navigating the evolving challenges facing higher education. Committed to continuous improvement and innovation in student experience design, Laura champions approaches that are inclusive, responsive, and future-focused, supporting institutions to deliver high-quality learning environments that empower students to succeed.
Leave a Reply