Position Details

College of Social Sciences 

Location: University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham UK

Full time starting salary is normally in the range £25,866 to £27,518, with potential progression once in post to £30,820

Grade: 4

Full Time, Permanent

Closing date: 21st May 2024 

Our offer to you

People are at the heart of what we are and do.

The University of Birmingham is proud to have been a part of the City of Birmingham and the wider region for over 100 years, and we are equally proud to be recognised as a leading global university. We want to attract talented people from across the city and beyond, support them to succeed, and celebrate their success.

We are committed to helping the people who work here to develop through our sector-leading Birmingham Professional programme which provides all professional services staff with development opportunities and the encouragement to reach their full potential. With almost 5,000 professional services jobs in a wide-range of functions in Edgbaston and in our campus in Dubai, there are plenty of opportunities for you to be able to develop your career at the University.

We believe there is no such thing as a typical member of staff and that diversity is a source of strength that underpins the exchange of ideas, innovation, and debate. We warmly welcome people from all backgrounds and are committed to fostering an inclusive environment where diversity is at the heart of who and what we are, and how we work.

Supporting our people to achieve a healthy work/life balance is important both to our employees and to the success of the University and, depending on the role, we offer a variety of flexible working arrangements. We therefore welcome discussions on all forms of flexible working. In addition, you will receive a generous package of benefits including 40 days paid holiday a year, one paid day a year for volunteering, occupational sick pay, and a pension scheme. We also have three high quality subsidised day nurseries.

The University is situated in leafy Edgbaston and there are excellent transport links to our beautiful campus, including main bus routes and a train station on site. On campus we have a state-of-the-art sports centre with pool, shops, places to eat and drink, our own art gallery, museum and botanical gardens.

Find out more about the benefits of working for the University of Birmingham

Role Summary

You will join a professional services team which is passionate about providing an excellent administration support for students and staff. Duties may vary between teams, but you will have the opportunity to be involved in all aspects of the administrative work supporting the delivery of our taught and research programmes for students. This will include providing timely and accurate administrative support for some or all of the following activities: student recruitment and admissions, welcome activities, induction, timetabling, attendance monitoring, examinations, student progression, placements and graduation etc.

You will be able to develop a wide range of skills, both technical and administrative, and may also have the opportunity to lead on specific tasks within the team

Main duties

• Act as the first point of contact providing relevant and timely information to students, staff and external providers, answering queries promptly and handling any issues from initial contact to resolution. This will include recognising when queries need to be referred elsewhere.
• Provide administrative support for a wide range of activities in delivering the annual cycle of teaching and learning outlined in the role summary above; for example recording student attendance information or seeking draft exam papers from academic staff for approval.
• Regularly communicate relevant information to students, staff and external providers.
• Provide administrative support for event planning and delivery which enhances the curriculum and student experience.
• Use a variety of complex University systems and processes to collate, manipulate and interpret sets of data, and produce routine reports.
• Contribute to the annual programme/module review and evaluation processes.
• Contribute to periodic reviews of administrative processes and procedures with the objective of making improvements and sharing best practice across other areas within the wider University.
• Provide a professional secretarial service to relevant committees and meetings where required.
• Supports equality and values diversity, moderating own behaviour to avoid unfair discriminatory impact or bias on others.

Required Knowledge, Skills, Qualifications, Experience

You will need to evidence:

• Some professional experience in similar roles; and
• GCSEs to a minimum of grade C/4 in English and Mathematics (or equivalent qualifications).

You will be:

• Comfortable in a role where you take responsibility for specific tasks, where you can carry out duties without needing to refer to others, and where you have some scope for choice and using your own judgment.
• Comfortable with working largely on your own initiative, although supervision is available. 
• Encouraged to contribute to improving processes and to propose new ways of working. 
• Able to communicate clearly and effectively with others, and delegate straightforward duties where appropriate.
• Well organised with the ability to prioritise work proactively, independently and as part of a team.

In addition to the above, you should be able to demonstrate and/or evidence the following:

• The ability to work to tight deadlines in a collaborative team environment. 
• The ability to support other team members.
• A good understanding of how to deliver excellent customer service.
• The ability to interact with individuals at all levels of internal and external organisations.
• Experience of using and maintaining complex work systems e.g. student databases/record systems or equivalent, and an aptitude for learning new IT packages and systems.
• Exemplary attention to detail and the ability to work confidentially, use judgement and make appropriate decisions within the constraints of the role.
• Experience of supporting committees in a secretarial capacity.
• The ability to cope with change in a fast moving, dynamic environment where change is often required immediately.
• An understanding of the importance of equality and diversity in the workplace.
• The ability to identify and respond to equality and diversity issues in line with relevant policies and procedures and how to respond to issues in line with relevant policies and procedures.

Planning and organising

You will be required to manage and prioritise a varied workload to deliver within required time frames.

Problem solving and decision making

You will be working under the direction of a senior manager, but with some autonomy to deliver the outputs required. You will be working within the framework of existing policies, processes and procedures for the University and the College. You will take day to day decisions on answering queries and will be expected to refer queries on as appropriate.

Internal and external relationships

This role will be liaising with internal colleagues and stakeholders, and possibly external stakeholders as well with an expectation on maintaining good working relationships with all.

View our staff values and behaviours here 

Informal enquiries to Andrew Howell, a.howell@bham.ac.uk 

We believe there is no such thing as a 'typical' member of University of Birmingham staff and that diversity in its many forms is a strength that underpins the exchange of ideas, innovation and debate at the heart of University life. We are committed to proactively addressing the barriers experienced by some groups in our community and are proud to hold Athena SWAN, Race Equality Charter and Disability Confident accreditations. We have an Equality Diversity and Inclusion Centre that focuses on continuously improving the University as a fair and inclusive place to work where everyone has the opportunity to succeed. We are also committed to sustainability, which is a key part of our strategy. You can find out more about our work to create a fairer university for everyone on our website.