Senior Education Support Administrator - Academic Services - 107904 - Grade 5

Position Details

College of Social Sciences

Location: University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham UK

Full time starting salary is normally in the range £30,062 to £31,900, with potential progression once in post to £35,883

Grade: 5

Part Time (21 hours per week)

Fixed Term contract up to October 2027

Closing date: 13th September 2026

Interviews scheduled: Week commencing 21st September 2026

Background

Department overview 

The role is based in the College of Social Sciences which brings together expertise from across the physical, environmental and social sciences to advance understanding of the planet and its people - past, present, and future. Students and Postgraduate Researchers are at the heart of all we do. You will join a friendly professional services team which is passionate about providing excellent administration support for students and staff. You will work closely with a diverse group of people including managers, academic staff and students, both internally and externally. Duties may vary between teams, but you will have the opportunity to contribute or take a lead in all aspects of administration relating to postgraduate researchers. 

Role Summary

The College Graduate Research Office is seeking a highly organised and experienced Administrator who will lead on a range of comprehensive administrative duties for our PGR programmes including admissions, induction, progression, and compliance. The successful candidate will have the initiative and confidence to work autonomously with plenty of enthusiasm. They will have excellent communication skills with the ability to work collaboratively with a wide range of staff to provide first-class administrative service to our postgraduate researchers. The postholder will primarily support the School of Education but will work collaboratively with other Senior Education Support Administrators to ensure sufficient administrative provision is in place for all Schools within the College of Social Sciences. Therefore, we are looking for someone who has strong characteristics of a great team player and will enjoy being part of a professional services team which is passionate about enhancing administrative service to support the postgraduate research experience. 

Applicants should note that this post is part time with the option of working over 3 or 4 days, including Mondays. Please note that interviews will take place w/c 21 September 2026. 

Main Duties

• Act as primary contact for academic staff involved in the delivery of research programmes, 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 PhD programmes; with the ability to supervise the workload of others where necessary. 
• Specifically take responsibility for the more complex tasks associated with welcome, induction, attendance monitoring and recording, timetabling, funding, 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 College/School/Programme administration.
• Responsible for the regular review and update of key documentation.
• Support periodic quality assurance related audits, report on School/Programme compliance, propose solutions and develop and deliver remedial action plans.
• Providing a professional secretarial service to relevant committees and meetings.
• Proactively identify ways of enhancing the curriculum and postgraduate researcher 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.
• Treats everyone with dignity and respect in line with current equality legislation. 
• Other relevant criteria from our equality and diversity duties document. 

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. 
• You will still be expected to act as a role model and may be asked to coach members of the team. Additionally, you may occasionally be required to take responsibility for co-ordinating and prioritising the workload of others. 

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 supervise 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 team 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 Marlene Cullen, email: [email protected] 

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.