Student Hub Services Advisor - Academic Services - 53618 - Grade 4

University of Birmingham; Birmingham; On-site; GBP 33,000; Full time

Job description

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, Permanent

Closing date: 27th April 2025

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 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.

Background

The Student Hub Services Administrator is part of the Hub Services Team within Student Services. The team is based within the Aston Webb Student Hub in the Aston Webb Building, at the heart of our Birmingham campus. The purpose of our team is to provide excellent customer service and administrative guidance to students, as well as supporting other internal stakeholders (such as other teams within Student Services) and external regulatory and civic bodies.

The team receives and responds to around 80,000 queries from students and staff each year in a multi-channel environment, and manages the provision of information, advice and guidance on topics spanning the breadth of the student lifecycle – from Welcome and Registration to Graduation and beyond.

Role Summary

This role will have the opportunity to work across HST’s two main workstreams, ensuring a varied and interesting range of work. Duties may vary across workstreams, but you will be trained in everything you need to know to support the delivery of our Student Information and Specialist Service Support activity.

Our Student Information workstream provides front line information, advice and guidance to students on a wide variety of queries, and resolves 80% of all student requests at the first point of contact. It also provides transactional services such as ID card issue, reference requests, letter requests and has a pivotal role in the delivery of University Welcome activities throughout the academic year. The Specialist Service Support workstream provides administrative and customer service support to and on behalf of: Funding, Graduation and Awards (FGA), Student Disability Service (SDS), Mental Health and Wellbeing, and Student Wellbeing and Partnerships.

The Hub Services Team receives a high volume of queries across our in-person, email and telephone channels, and the Student Hub Services Administrator will be expected to work across all of these enquiry channels. You will become an expert user of the University’s student records system, Banner, and of the enquiry management system, Verint. You will also develop excellent triage skills in order to be able to effectively respond to and signpost student queries on a wide range of topics, including financial, disability and wellbeing support, and University administrative processes.

A significant percentage of the post holder’s time will be invested in responding to queries from students and applicants contacting the Hub Services Team, including liaising with other internal and external stakeholders as required. The post holder will be an integral member of the Hub Services Team and it is important that they are prepared and willing to undertake sessional activities (e.g. Welcome and Graduation) as well as other tasks as directed to ensure the successful running of this high volume, important service.

Main Duties

• To undertake day-to-day administration and customer service activity for the Hub Services Team, including responding to a wide range of student enquiries received by email, telephone and in-person.
• To provide administrative and customer service support to internal specialist support teams, including Funding, Graduation and Awards, Student Disability Service, Mental Health and Wellbeing, and Student Wellbeing and Partnerships.
• Supporting sessional activity, such as Welcome and Graduations, as required. This may require some out of hours/weekend working.
• Undertake projects or special tasks which may be assigned from time to time. For example, this may include contributing to periodic reviews of administrative and customer service processes and procedures with the objective of making improvements and sharing best practice across other areas within the wider University.
• Manage all data and interactions 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.
• To contribute to own professional development and the development of the service by keeping your knowledge up to date with relevant training activities, attendance at team meetings, and other important knowledge building activities.
• Any other duties that might reasonably be required from time to time in line with the grading of the post.

Required Knowledge, Skills, Qualifications, Experience

• Educated to a minimum of GCSE (or equivalent) standard, with at least 5 GCSE passes at grade A* - C or GCSE levels 9 – 5 (or equiv.) including English and Maths.
• Experience of delivering high quality customer service and ability to demonstrate a strong understanding of how to respond to differing stakeholders’ needs, including internal customers across different University departments, and enquirers from a diverse range of backgrounds.
• Demonstrating excellent attention to detail, accuracy and personal organisation.
• The ability to thrive in a fast-moving, dynamic environment where change is often required at short notice.
• Excellent IT skills especially in the use of Microsoft Office Applications and systems such as enquiry management systems. The post holder will have the confidence and ability to learn new packages as and when required.
• Ability to prioritise workloads in the face of conflicting demands, using own judgement to ensure the work is completed to time and deadlines.
• Excellent written communication skills, including the ability to write clearly and concisely and must include evidence of a thorough knowledge of English grammar; punctuation, and spelling, with the ability to edit and proofread own text.
• Experience of developing good working relationships (e.g. partnerships) with colleagues from different areas in a company, showing understanding of the interdependencies that affect the work of other staff / teams in an organisation.
• Evidence of ability to provide a high level of all of the following: professional judgment, confidentiality, diplomacy, cultural awareness and sensitivity, when liaising with staff, students and other key stakeholders.
• The post holder must have an appreciation and general understanding of GDPR and its relationship with the Data Protection Act, the need for controls around information security and confidentiality.
• Flexibility and willingness to work extended hours to meet the demands of the service during term time and at weekends to meet the needs of the service (e.g. Arrivals weekend in September for Welcome, degree congregations during July and December).

Dimensions

You will not be required to routinely line manage anyone in this role or manage a budget but you may supervise temporary staff from time to time.

Planning and Organising

You will be required to manage and prioritise a varied workload to deliver within required time frames. There is also a need to maintain an awareness of activity across the department and wider University as appropriate.

Problem Solving and Decision Making

You will be working under the direction of a senior manager, but with the autonomy to deliver the outputs required. You will be working within the framework of existing policies, processes and procedures for the University. You will, however, take day to day decisions on what advice to give and for responding to and resolving queries.

Internal and External Relationships

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

Informal enquiries to Evie Wilkes, email: [e-mail]

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 everyone on our website.