Position Details Dubai Professional Services Academic Services University of Birmingham, Dubai campus Salary: Competitive Grade 6 No. of positions: 1 Full time Location: Dubai, UAE Closing date: 17th July 2023 University of Birmingham Dubai Having established ourselves in Dubai International Academic City in 2018 we have now moved to our new state-of-the-art campus which opened in Sept 2021. These posts represent an excellent opportunity to join an ambitious World Top 100 University as we continue to grow our long-term strategic mission in Dubai, the UAE and the wider region. Our campus reflects the very best of Birmingham through our presence in Dubai. Background Our ethos as a Professional Services team has been developed in line with the principles of being a Birmingham Professional . In particular here in Dubai this means that all Professional Services colleagues seek to collaborate effectively to ensure the needs of the whole campus community and our stakeholders are met. It also means that we work constructively together to provide a flexible range of service and support that adapt to the changing needs of the Campus as we grow. There are specific focal points in the academic cycle when all Professional Services team members will be expected to contribute regardless of their primary role, for example Welcome or Graduation. In addition, the duties listed below are illustrative of the general nature and level of responsibility of this post which is likely to change over time in response to the needs of the Campus and as you develop your experience and skills. You will have the opportunity to develop and may also need to specialise your duties further, over time, in agreement with your manager. In order to contribute to the success of the team and the University\xe2\x80\x99s vision for the Dubai Campus the Professional Services team will be seeking to continue to recruit and develop colleagues who display:

• a high level of intellectual aptitude ;
• strong agility and a portfolio of skills that can adapt to meet changing circumstances;
• an innovative and creative mind-set; and
• both an enterprising and entrepreneurial nature to support our growth and pursuit of excellence.

Role Summary The Services and Support thematic area will focus on providing all students with the University of Birmingham Dubai with a wide range of high quality services and support. This will also support the University and our academic colleagues in the delivery of our academic mission in respect of both Education and Research including:

• Welcome and induction activities
• Careers, employability and skills support
• Programme administration support and services
• Research administration support
• Visa and immigration services
• Information advice and guidance services
• Learning and library services
• Wellbeing services
• Academic Skills support
• Support to the University of Birmingham Dubai Students\xe2\x80\x99 Association
• General student administration through to graduation support.

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 student and programme administration ranging from registration throughout the student journey to graduation. You will work closely with a diverse group of people including managers, academic staff, PS staff and students to deliver the annual cycle of teaching and learning administration related activities, looking after the administration processes for our academic programmes including marking, supervision, feedback and submissions. You will lead the administrative processes and systems for this area and will be responsible for supervising a team of Student Administration Officers on a day-to-day basis and making sure the function runs smoothly and delivers excellent experience to students and staff. Main Duties General

• Promotes equality and values diversity acting as a role model and fostering an inclusive working culture.
• Actively manages equality, diversity and inclusion through monitoring and evaluation and actively challenging unacceptable behaviour.
• Undertake continuous personal and professional development.

Job Specific Duties

• Provide high quality academic administration services for students, colleagues and external partners through effective team leadership focused on meeting objectives and providing excellent customer service.
• Contribute to the management and development of the team of academic administrators as directed by the Student & Programme Administration Manager: contributing to recruitment, providing or identifying the need for training and development, managing performance and conducting performance reviews.
• Ensure that staff are effectively and flexibly deployed to deliver consistently high standards of support and customer service across a set of academic programmes.
• Plan and manage team resources to meet seasonal demands and ensure that deadlines are met.
• Plan, organise and support key events (for example Exam Boards), liaising with all internal and external contributors.
• Ensure that accurate student records are maintained and undertake regular audits of student information to assess accuracy and quality, as directed by the QA team.
• Ensure that operations comply with University regulations, policy and procedure and provide advice to students and colleagues on how to apply policy.
• Undertake key aspects of student administration including but not limited to: attendance monitoring, production and collation of handbooks, module selection, coursework submission, planning of student tutorial provision, and general enquiry handling.
• Undertake student and course administration tasks relating to programme structure and/or requirements or professional, statutory or regulated bodies.
• Contribute to continuous improvement of processes and procedures. Look for opportunities to improve and streamline processes and encourage administration teams to come up with new or better ways of doing things
• Act as primary contact for academic staff involved in the Schools\xe2\x80\x99 /Programmes\xe2\x80\x99 learning and teaching, providing expert guidance, understanding and resolving queries, and identifying when to delegate or escalate queries.
• Responsible for building and maintaining collaborative working relationships with colleagues across the Admissions and Registry Service in order to ensure a seamless provision and provide excellent customer service
• Regularly communicate relevant information to students, staff and external providers.
• 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 student fees, student records, end of session processes, attendance monitoring and recording, student mobility admin, online and module registration, placements, examinations, progression, student status changes, and graduation.
• Contribute to the annual programme/module review and evaluation processes.
• 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 student and programme administration.
• Provide administrative support for event planning and delivery which enhances the curriculum and student experience.
• Proactively identify ways of enhancing the curriculum and student experience, making recommendations as appropriate.
• Contribute to periodic reviews of academic administrative processes and procedures with the objective of making improvements and sharing best practice across other areas within the wider University.
• Manage all data in accordance with University policy and Data Protection Regulations.

Additional responsibilities

• Supporting timetabling and room bookings activity, as required.
• Manage all data in accordance with University policy and Data Protection Regulations.
• To undertake such other duties as may be required from time to time.
• Undertake such other duties as may be prescribed from time to time by the Head of Student and Programme Administration.
• Undertake continuous personal and professional development.
• Conduct financial and Health & Safety duties in line with statutory and University\xe2\x80\x99s policies and procedures.

Person Specification You will need to evidence:

• Substantial professional experience in a variety of similar roles; and
• GCSEs to a minimum of grade C 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.
• Ability to read and interpret Excel spreadsheets, perform basic calculations, and manipulate tables.

Dimensions You will not have direct line management responsibilities in this role but, you will supervise a team, ensuring that the team works effectively with other teams in Professional Services, Faculty and the wider University, to deliver a complete academic administration service for a set of programmes. You will not normally manage a budget in this role. Problem Solving and decision making

• You will be working under the direction of a senior manager (Student and Programme Administration 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 relevant Colleges, 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\xe2\x80\x99s 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.
  

Valuing excellence, sustaining investment We value diversity and inclusion at the University of Birmingham and welcome applications from all sections of the community and are open to discussions around all forms of flexible working .