Position Details
College of Life and Environmental Sciences
Location: University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham UK
Salary: £30,062 – £31,900 (Full time). Potential progression to £35,883.
Grade: 5. Full time, Permanent. Closing date: 7th July 2026.
Benefits: 40 days paid holiday, one paid voluntary day per year, occupational sick pay, pension scheme, subsidised day nurseries.
Background
At the University of Birmingham, students are at the heart of all we do. You will join a professional services team passionate about providing excellent administration support for students and staff.
Duties may vary between teams, but you will contribute or lead in all aspects of administration supporting the delivery of teaching and research programmes for students.
You will work closely with a diverse group of people including managers, academic staff and students to deliver the annual cycle of teaching and learning related activity.
Role Summary
The Senior Education Support PGR Administrator is based within the PGR Programme Administration Team in the Research and Knowledge Transfer Office (RKTO), College of Life and Environmental Sciences. The postholder reports to the College PGR Manager and is responsible for education support across one or more research programmes.
Main Duties
- Act as primary contact for academic staff involved in Schools’ / Programmes’ learning and teaching, providing expert guidance, understanding and resolving queries, and identifying when to delegate or escape.
- Deal with higher profile contacts on own initiative.
- Work with your team to plan, organise, maintain and deliver activities, enabling successful delivery of programmes; may be designated line manager for staff.
- Take responsibility for complex tasks associated with welcome, induction/re-induction, attendance monitoring and recording, timetabling, placements, examinations, progression, and graduation.
- Contribute to management, development and implementation of operational processes.
- Prepare and deliver management and institutional reports, including complex data requests.
- Compile, manipulate, analyse and interpret large complex data sets to produce reports and identify required actions.
- Support development of systems and procedures to assist day-to-day running of School/Programme administration.
- Review and update key documentation regularly.
- Support periodic quality assurance audits, report compliance, propose solutions and deliver remedial action plans.
- Provide a professional secretarial service to relevant committees and meetings.
- Identify ways of enhancing curriculum and student experience, making recommendations.
- Manage all data in accordance with University policy and Data Protection Regulations.
- Treat everyone with dignity and respect in line with equality legislation.
- Other relevant criteria from equality and diversity duties document.
Other Duties
- The post-holder will undertake any other duties assigned by relevant management.
- If in a supervisory role, line manage all staff and prioritise work, normally as head of a small team or sub‑unit. If not in supervisory role, act as role model and coach members of the team.
Required Knowledge, Skills, Qualifications, Experience
- Substantial professional experience in similar roles.
- GCSEs to a minimum of grade C/4 in English and Mathematics (or equivalent).
- A‑levels or equivalent Level 3 qualification (Level 3 NVQ, or Level 3 National Diploma).
You will be
- Comfortable with significant responsibility and proactive in proposing new ways of working.
- Comfortable working on own initiative to complete tasks and projects without close supervision.
- Able to become authoritative quickly on complex systems and advise colleagues.
- Able to set standard for others, acting as a role model and coach staff as appropriate.
- Effective communicator and delegator.
- Well organised with ability to prioritise own work and that 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
- Ability to work to tight deadlines in a collaborative team environment.
- Ability to supervise and support the work of other team members.
- Good understanding of delivering excellent customer service and ability to influence others.
- Ability to interact with individuals at all levels of internal and external organisations.
- Experience of using and maintaining complex work systems such as student databases or equivalent.
- Exemplary attention to detail and ability to work confidentially, use judgement and make appropriate decisions within role constraints.
- Ability to cope with change in a fast moving, dynamic environment where change is often required immediately.
- Understand importance of equality and diversity in the workplace.
- Ability to identify and respond to equality and diversity issues in line with university policies and procedures.
- Other relevant criteria from equality and diversity knowledge, skills and experience document.
Equality and Diversity
We are an equal opportunities employer. We are committed to equality and diversity, continuously improving the University as a fair and inclusive place to work.
