Job Description
Position Details
College of Engineering and Physical Sciences
Location: University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham UK
Full time starting salary is normally in the range £32,296 to £34,866 with potential progression once in post to £39,105
Grade: 6
Full Time, Fixed Term contract up to December 2025
Closing date: 20th March 2025
This role is also open as an internal secondment opportunity which would need to be agreed by your current line manager.
Role Summary
The College Education Support Team Manager is based within the College of Engineering and Physical Sciences, Education Support Team. The post holder will support the delivery of teaching and learning related activity across the College, which will involve managing a team of Professional Services support staff and working closely with key senior academic and professional services educational leads across the College.
The role is based within a fast-paced environment, therefore the ability to manage multiple deadlines and adapt quickly to changing priorities is key. A high degree of initiative and creativity in finding solutions to complex problems is actively encouraged and the post holder will be expected to proactively engage with/contribute to process improvement and the development of service delivery capability across the College.
The post holder will be responsible for developing systems and processes for operational activities in the College, advising on the most appropriate mechanisms for successful delivery, and recommending implementation. Additionally, an element of the role will involve leading on areas for improvement and delivering high-level project support to the Education function. This will include developing, implementing, and prioritising projects within the Education function, while the wider team provides education-related support across the College as needed.
They will advise the Deputy Director of Operations (Education) and the Head of Operations (Education) on policy and procedural matters relevant to their role and be expected to work effectively and capably with professional and academic colleagues throughout the University.
Main Duties
Quality Assurance and Education Support
1. To develop and maintain effective and efficient administrative and organisational support for the Education Support and Quality function.
2. Provide informed and relevant advice to Schools in all matters relating to taught programme administration.
3. Provide expert advice in relation to data reporting and analysing data to senior academic staff within the College.
4. Build effective networks and relationships with external and internal contacts.
5. Act as a key contact and link between the School and other College and University support services and ensure that the appropriate academic and professional services staff are kept fully informed regarding changes and updates in practice and policy.
6. Ensure that responsibilities are carried out in accordance with Policies, Codes of Practice and Regulations as defined by the School, College and University and to be pro-active in offering advice based on these regulations and procedures to students and staff where required and appropriate.
7. Reviewing School and College policies and procedures, anticipating changes that may need to be made and suggesting improvements.
8. Working closely with key members of academic and professional services staff to provide an effective administrative service in response to changing needs and priorities; advising other managers and colleagues on matters relating to programme administration and academic administrative support.
9. Maintain a focus on the quality of the student experience in your service area, working collaboratively and creatively with colleagues to support student engagement and promote enhancement opportunities.
10. Provide senior administrative support to internal and external reviews and audits, such as the Higher Education Review.
Project Management
1. To lead on the delivery, implementation and monitoring of projects as required by the Head of Operations (Education) and other senior College staff or nominee.
2. Act as Project Board/Team member on major cross-institutional projects (where required).
3. Responsible for developing systems for operational activity in the College by advising on the most appropriate mechanisms for successful delivery and recommending implementation.
Compliance
1. To ensure that the College is complying with all duties in accordance with appropriate legislation and University procedures, such as Codes of Practice, External Bodies etc.
2. Under the guidance of the Head of Operations (Education), develop and nurture partnership relationships with colleagues within the College and across the University.
3. Responsibility for the development, delivery and review of standardised and robust compliance systems within the College. Implementing and communicating as appropriate.
4. Work closely with Education Support Teams to ensure that attendance-recording procedures are in place and being followed up in accordance with College procedures.
5. To review, develop and deliver effective and efficient monitoring of compliance in accordance with College procedures and processes working closely with colleagues across College.
6. Identify where change is needed and articulate and facilitate change processes with relevant staff.
7. To represent the College at relevant meetings as agreed with Head of Operations (Education).
8. To identify and act on issues and proactively make recommendations to the College with specific regard to compliance issues.
9. Responsible for developing strategic approaches to compliance project management activity for the College.
10. To escalate matters around compliance to Head of Operations (Education) or nominee.
Systems, Procedures and Service Improvements
The post holder will pro-actively contribute to the on-going development of the Colleges Professional Services, its values, standards, service levels, and professional ethos in conjunction with the Head of Operations (Education). This may include but is not limited to:
1. Developing systems and procedures for agreed areas of work within the College in conjunction with the Head of Operations (Education) to ensure consistent practice and to protect business continuity. Areas may include: assessment and examinations, attendance recording and monitoring, module selections, timetabling, module evaluations etc.
2. Maintenance and continued content development of the College Intranet.
3. Preparing reports on matters associated with the role, as required by the College. This will include making recommendations for change or review.
4. Provide training and support for users at all levels in the use of systems and software relevant to Education Delivery, not limited to but including, Excel, EDMS, Power BI Dashboards, MS Teams.
Team Management
The post holder will manage a team of Professional Services staff. This will include for example:
1. Providing a leadership role to the team members.
2. Managing and leading change.
3. Mentoring and motivating staff, monitoring individual performance throughout the year, addressing issues as necessary to achieve optimum performance from all staff.
4. Coaching and encouraging staff in a supportive environment, demonstrating willingness to listen, engage and support.
5. To demonstrate a commitment to training and using University provided systems.
6. Managing the timely completion of Development Review meetings for individuals, including allocating reviewees to reviewers, conducting Development meetings, completing associated paperwork and supporting levelling in accordance with procedures developed by the College.
7. Assessing and collating team development needs, communicating these to the Head of Education Support & Quality contributing to College learning and development plans, which may include delivery e.g. one to one and small group training on the use of data systems.
8. Handling sensitive and confidential HR matters for individual staff within the teams, where appropriate consulting line managers and HR staff where appropriate.
9. Serving on interview panels for new staff, mentoring staff during probation and preparing probation reports.
Support across the College of Engineering and Physical Sciences
1. The specific areas of responsibility and/or tasks may change from time to time in accordance with the requirements of the School and its priorities of the time.
2. From time to time, the post holder may participate in reviews of certain aspects of teaching administration e.g. looking at current practices in Schools and coming up with solutions for good practice across the College. This will be done in consultation with the Head of Operations (Education).
3. The post holder may also be required to work in other parts of the College.
4. The post holder will also participate in various Working Groups and provide secretarial support to Committee meetings as appropriate.
5. Any other duties as allocated by the Deputy Director of Operations (Education) and the Head of Operations (Education).
Required Knowledge, Skills, Qualifications, Experience
1. Educated to Degree level (or equivalent level qualifications) - where no equivalent qualification is held, relevant work experience evidencing progression and development together with evidence of the transferable skills and ability to work at this level will normally be required.
2. Educated to at least A Level standard or equivalent.
3. Significant practical experience in a similar senior administrative role within a customer service-based environment.
4. Experienced in a role where you are expected to provide staff support, development, and motivation.
5. Significantly experienced in communicating and collaborating with all levels of staff and able to demonstrate a proven ability to set and maintain standards for your designated service, communicating your own expectations and possibly the expectations of senior colleagues.
6. Able to influence change and decision making by evaluating work and analysing the benefits, costs and risks of alternative scenarios.
7. Personally well organised, with high levels of team organisation skills, including the ability to ensure deadlines are met by prioritising the work of yourself and your team.
8. Ability to work flexibly responding to changing business needs and changes to external legislation, for example Home Office rules and guidance.
9. Ability to deal with confidential and sensitive data in accordance with appropriate legislation.
10. Strong IT skills, including word-processing, databases and spreadsheets. Experience and a good working knowledge of large-scale data management systems, such as BOXI, or be sufficiently IT-literate (to a high standard) to be able to acquire such knowledge quickly and using own initiative which can be applied to the role.
11. Experience of setting up and maintaining complex working systems.
12. Experience of operating effectively and efficiently in a busy multifunctional environment, prioritising a heavy workload and working to tight deadlines, taking account of the needs of the main areas of activity in Schools and the variety of customers.
13. Excellent communication skills; ability to communicate effectively with staff and students at a variety of different levels and from different professional backgrounds.
14. A high degree of resourcefulness e.g. the ability to transfer existing knowledge to new situations to formulate a solution to a problem.
15. Able to ensure accuracy, even when performing routine tasks and demonstrate attention to detail.
16. An ability to independently and confidently seek out and apply or advise on matters of University of Birmingham legislation.
17. Experience of working in higher education and familiarity with University procedures, policies, structures and systems is desirable but not essential.
18. Knowledge of the protected characteristics of the Equality Act 2010, and how to actively ensure in day to day activity in own area that those with protected characteristics are treated equally and fairly.
Dimensions
As a key team manager, you will be expected to lead and motivate a team or teams with multiple members to provide an excellent service, often via intermediate line managers. You will have responsibility for managing the administration of a portfolio of study elements (likely to include a range of different assessments, modules and programmes of study) delivered by a range of academic staff. Your team's customers will number in the dozens of academic staff and other colleagues, and hundreds or thousands of students. Some role-holders will liaise regularly with external partners and regulators.
Planning and Organising
You will be required to develop initiatives and approaches proactively, identify and recommend improvements to the service, and work across the College and University as required.
Problem Solving and decision making
You will be expected to provide expert advice and proactively troubleshoot when issues arise.
Internal and External relationships
This role will be liaising with internal (and in some cases, external) colleagues and stakeholders, potentially across the University as you will contribute on working groups etc, as well as dealing with customers with more complex issues to solve. You will proactively lead and motivate your team, dealing with all team issues as appropriate.
Informal enquiries to Shawnia Cairns, email: s.l.cairns@bham.ac.uk
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