Position Details

Birmingham Business School

Location: University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham UK

Full time starting salary is normally in the range £28,397 to £30,210, with potential progression once in post to £33,938

Grade: 5

Full Time, Fixed Term contract up to September 2025

Closing date: 25th August 2024

Please note, this role is only open to recent graduates of the University of Birmingham.

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

Finished your degree at the University of Birmingham and looking for your next challenge? Kick start your career as a Student Academic Experience Intern in the Birmingham Business School.

This paid internship is designed exclusively for recent University of Birmingham graduates. The role will enable you to work on new initiatives to the develop the support provided for students, whilst being supported to develop the skills and experience you need to go forward and succeed in your future career.

We have an exciting opportunity to join our diverse and vibrant Professional Services teams supporting students and staff.

Please note, candidates who apply for Student Academic Experience Intern – Birmingham Business School, will also be considered for Student Academic Experience Intern – Wellbeing and Engagement. It is not necessary to submit an application to both vacancies.

We are passionate about providing excellent services for students and these roles will offer you the scope to contribute by proactively identifying ways of enhancing the student journey, providing guidance and advice and supporting the successful delivery of initiatives. As recent graduates we want to learn about your experiences and use them to inform and develop the delivery of our student support from the beginning to the end of the student journey.

Interviews are provisionally scheduled for Friday 30th August and will take place on site at the Edgbaston Campus.

Role Summary

As a Student Academic Experience Intern you will be actively helping to support Undergraduate and Postgraduate Taught students and will work on and champion a range of actions and initiatives aimed at delivering significant immediate improvement of the education support and student academic experience. Duties may vary between Schools within the Colleges, but you will work closely with a diverse group of people including students, academic staff, Professional Services and Guild of Students colleagues to enhance students’ experience of their learning community.

Student Academic Experience Interns report to the Education Support Manager within the Business School. These roles will work across a range of teams within the School and the wider College of Social Sciences. They will work alongside existing University colleagues who already focus on education support and the student academic experience and will be integrated with Programme Leads and Teams.

Main Duties

Duties and responsibilities will include, but are not limited to:

Welcome (Back)

• Support the induction of new students and re-induction for continuing students through Welcome and Welcome Back activities.

Student Communications

• Assist with awareness raising around the University calendar, and for specific events and activities for students.
• Ensure announcements are made via Canvas.
• Manage student queries via face-to-face reception offering, and emails sent to the generic inboxes.

Organisation and Management

• Facilitate the planning and delivery of SSF’s (Student Success Forum), including minute taking, event creation, room booking and attendance monitoring.

Academic Engagement and Learning Community

• Provide triage support for queries during assessment periods.
• Promote and encourage engagement with assessment advice sessions.

General

• Develop a strong knowledge of programmes offered by the Business School.
• Work with other Professional Services colleagues, to contribute to the development of good practice and continuous improvement across the School and wider University.
• Proactively identify opportunities to consult with students and make recommendations for implementing new student academic experience initiatives.
• Work closely with senior staff in the University to make constructive contributions to the development of student academic activity and strategy.
• 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.
• Support the ESO teams with tasks as and when required.
• Assist the Assurance of Learning processes throughout the School.

The post holder will undertake any other duties that may be assigned by the relevant management team in support of more complex activities.

Required Knowledge, Skills, Qualifications, Experience

You will need to evidence:

• A degree, awarded recently by the University of Birmingham.

You will be:

• Comfortable in a role where you take significant responsibility and where you are expected to proactively propose new ways of working and new initiatives with senior colleagues.
• 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 students and colleagues on these.
• Able to set the standard for other colleagues, acting as a role model.
• Able to communicate effectively as required.
• 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:

• An understanding of Undergraduate and Postgraduate education and the student lifecycle.
• The ability to work to tight deadlines in a collaborative team environment.
• The ability to support the work of other team members.
• The ability to interact with individuals at all levels of internal and external organisations.
• A good understanding of delivering excellent customer service and the ability to influence others to deliver it too.
• 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.

Informal enquiries to Charley Hafiz, email: c.hafiz@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 everyone on our website .