Role Summary

At the University of Birmingham, students are at the heart of all we do. 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.

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.

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.
• Treats everyone with dignity and respect in line with current equality legislation.
• Other relevant criteria from our equality and diversity duties document.

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.
• Understands the importance of equality and diversity in the workplace.
• Ability to identify and respond to equality and diversity issues in line with relevant university policies and procedures relating to equality and diversity.
• Other relevant criteria from our equality and diversity knowledge, skills, and experience document.

Informal Enquiries

To Sean Pilsbury, email: s.pilsbury@bham.ac.uk

View our staff values and behaviours here.

Use of AI in Applications

We want to understand your genuine interest in the role and for the written elements of your application to accurately reflect your own communication style. Applications that rely too heavily on AI tools can appear generic and lack the detail we need to assess your skills and experience. Such applications will unlikely be progressed to interview.

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.