Job Description
Position Details
School of Philosophy, Theology and Religion
Location: University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham UK
Full time starting salary is normally in the range £29,647 to £31,460, with potential progression once in post to £35,388
Grade: 5
Part Time (22.5 hours per week)
Permanent
Closing date: 1st January 2026
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
The School of Philosophy, Theology and Religion offers a variety of forward-thinking undergraduate and postgraduate study opportunities. We are home to a dynamic and friendly community of staff and students, pursuing original research on a wide range of topics.
At the University of Birmingham, students are at the heart of all we do. You will join a professional services team which is passionate about providing excellent administration support for students and staff.
Duties may vary between teams, but you will have the opportunity to contribute or take a lead in all aspects of administration supporting the delivery of our teaching and research programmes for students.
You will work closely with a diverse group of people including managers, academic staff and students to deliver the annual cycle of teaching and learning related activity.
Main Duties
- Act as primary contact for academic staff involved in the Schools’ /Programmes’ learning and teaching, providing expert guidance, understanding and resolving queries, and identifying when to delegate or escalate queries.
- Deal with higher profile contacts on own initiative.
- Work with and support your team to plan, organise, maintain and deliver activities, enabling the successful delivery of programmes.
- Specifically take responsibility for the more complex tasks associated with welcome, induction/re-induction, attendance monitoring and recording, examinations, progression, and graduation etc.
- Make a substantial contribution to the management, development and implementation of operational processes.
- Prepare and deliver management and institutional reports; this will include responding to complex data requests involving the need to pull information from various sources.
- Compile, manipulate, analyse and interpret large and complex data sets, drawing up reports and/or identifying required actions as appropriate.
- Support the development of systems and procedures to assist in the day to day running of School/Programme administration.
- Responsible for the regular review and update of key documentation.
- Support periodic quality assurance related audits, report on compliance, propose solutions and develop and deliver remedial action plans.
- Providing a professional secretarial service to relevant committees and meeting.
- Proactively identify ways of enhancing the curriculum and student experience, making recommendations as appropriate.
- Support equality and values diversity, moderating own behaviour to avoid unfair discriminatory impact or bias on others.
- Manage all data in accordance with University policy and Data Protection Regulations.
Other Duties
- The post-holder will undertake any other duties that may be assigned by the relevant management team in support of more complex activities.
- If in a supervisory role, you will line manage all staff and take responsibility for co-ordinating and prioritising the work of others, normally as the head of a small team or sub-unit of a team. If not in a supervisory role you will still be expected to act as a role model and coach members of the team.
Required Knowledge, Skills, Qualifications, Experience
You will need to evidence:
- Substantial professional experience in a variety of similar roles; and
- GCSEs to a minimum of grade C/4 in English and Mathematics (or equivalent qualifications); and
- A levels or an equivalent level 3 qualification, such as a Level 3 NVQ, or level 3 national diploma.
You will be:
- Comfortable in a role where you take significant responsibility and where you are expected to proactively propose new ways of working.
- Comfortable working on your own initiative to complete tasks and projects without close supervision.
- Able to become authoritative quickly on complex systems and be able to advise colleagues on these.
- Able to set the standard for other colleagues, acting as a role model and coaching staff as appropriate.
- You will be able to communicate and delegate effectively as required.
- Well organised with the ability to prioritise work (your own and the work of others) 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 supervise and support the work of other team members.
- A good understanding of delivering excellent customer service and the ability to influence others to deliver it too.
- 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.
- Exemplary attention to detail and the ability to work confidentially, use judgement and make appropriate decisions within the constraints of the role.
- 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.
- Ability to identify and respond to equality and diversity issues in line with relevant policies and procedures.
Dimensions
You may directly manage others in this role but, even if you do not, you will still be expected to act as a role model and coach members of the team. You will not normally manage a budget in this role.
Planning and Organising
You will be required to manage and prioritise a varied and complex workload to deliver within required time frames, and make a substantial contribution to the management, development and implementation of operational processes.
Problem Solving and decision making
You will be working under the direction of a senior manager, but with considerable 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, but there will be plenty of scope to review and shape processes. You will take day to day decisions on some of the more complex tasks in the team’s remit including identifying next steps as appropriate.
Internal and External relationships
This role will be liaising with internal colleagues and stakeholders, external stakeholders as well, sometimes with customers who have issues with the service, with an expectation on maintaining good working relationships with all.
Informal enquiries to Ruth Johnson, email: r.johnson@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 . 
