Registry Education Support Administrator (Student Administration) - Academic Services - Grade 4[...]

Position Details

Academic Services

Location: University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham UK

Full time starting salary is normally in the range £27,166 to £28,768, with potential progression once in post to £32,145

Grade: 4

Full Time, Fixed Term contract up to October 2025

Closing date: 6th April 2025

4 positions available

Are you considering a career at the University of Birmingham? Our Recruitment Team is hosting one-to-one conversations to help you understand the application process, provide updates on existing applications, and answer general questions about working at the University. Our next appointments are available on Friday 28th March; click here to book. Further dates and opportunities to connect with us in person will be advertised on future job listings.

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

Background

Registry is a division within Academic Services at the University of Birmingham, with responsibility for key education administration and education support services at a leading global university. The work of the department underpins a student’s academic journey from registration through to graduation and ensures delivery and support of high quality and excellence in education and research. Registry acts as the definitive record keeper of the student record, student information and programme and module details on behalf of the University. Key departmental functions include (but are not limited to) academic and student related regulations and codes of practice; examinations; curriculum management; student conduct, complaints and appeals; quality assurance; timetabling; student record systems; student record administration; collaborative partnerships and apprenticeships.

Role Summary

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 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: induction, timetabling, maintenance of curriculum and student records, compliance, examinations (including thesis examination), student progression, conferment of degrees and document production 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. You will have the ability to prioritise and manage your own workload to ensure that deadlines are met. You will be involved in accurate input of data, utilising reporting tools and undertaking regular checks to validate and verify information to ensure accuracy of University records.

You will also keep your knowledge up to date with training activities, attendance at team meetings and other important knowledge building activities.

In order to flexibly use resource, you may be given the opportunity to work in different areas of Registry or the wider University.

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.
• Regularly communicate relevant information to students, staff and external providers.
• Maintain excellent working relationships with key stakeholders, fielding queries, and offering advice and support to others on a specific area of activity.
• Use a variety of complex University systems and processes to complete tasks, collate, manipulate and interpret sets of data, and produce routine reports.
• Process data (student-related or other), monitoring accuracy, chasing up missing information, and escalating any issues as appropriate.
• Perform regular, systematic checks to validate and verify information in order to ensure clean, accurate and complete data, identifying and resolving any missing, incomplete or contradictory data using relevant tools to do so.
• 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 professional administrative support to relevant committees, meetings and/or event planning where required.
• Ensure confidentiality at all times.
• Manage all data in accordance with University policy and GDPR requirements.
• Support equality and values diversity, moderating own behaviour to avoid unfair discriminatory impact or bias on others.
• As required, review and update webpages.
• Undertake projects or special tasks from time to time.
• Undertake any other duties which may reasonably be required, such as assisting with department events and Degree Congregations.

Required Knowledge, Skills, Qualifications, Experience

You will need to evidence:

• Some professional experience in similar roles;
• GCSEs to a minimum of grade C 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.
• Excellent communication skills, with the ability to communicate clearly and effectively with individuals at all levels (internal and external), including the ability to write clearly and concisely, correct use of grammar; punctuation, and spelling, with the ability to edit and proof-read own work.
• 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.
• 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.
• An appreciation and general understanding of GDPR requirements, the Equality Act and the need to exercise confidentiality.

Dimensions

You will not be required to line manage anyone in this role or manage a budget.

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 Registry. 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.

Informal enquiries to Eleanor Smithson, email: e.smithson@bham.ac.uk and Allyson Dudley, email: a.dudley@bham.ac.uk

View our staff values and behaviours here

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 everyoneon our website.