Student Casual – Research Assistant – Birmingham Business School – Grade 6 – 907173

Post title: Research Assistant (Employability, Skills and Professional Identity)

College/Division: College of Social Sciences

School/Department: Birmingham Business School, Department of Accounting

Full time/Part time: Part time

Duration of the Post: 01/04/2026 – 31/05/2026

Grade: 6

Hourly rate: £16.92 per hour plus holiday entitlement

Number of positions available: 1

Closing Date: 13/03/2026 at 23:55

Please note that this vacancy may be taken down early depending on the number of applications received. We advise you to submit your application promptly.

About the Role

We are seeking a motivated PhD student to work as a Research Assistant on a pedagogic research project entitled: "Becoming an Accountant: How Degree Programmes Support Professional Identity Formation through Skills Recognition and Reflection." The project explores how higher education programmes help students recognise, articulate, and reflect on the professional skills they develop, and how this supports employability, professional identity formation, and lifelong learning.

While the project is situated within accounting education, candidates do not need to be from Accounting or Finance. This role may particularly suit PhD students from Education, Business & Management, Social Sciences, or related disciplines, especially those with an interest in:

• employability and graduate skills
• reflective learning and professional identity
• curriculum and programme design
• lifelong learning and professional development

What you’ll gain

This role offers:

• paid research experience linked to funded pedagogic scholarship
• insight into employability-focused curriculum research
• opportunities to develop transferable research skills relevant to academic, educational development, or policy careers
• experience working on a time-bound, clearly scoped research project

Main duties

The Research Assistant will support the preparation of a targeted desktop literature review, including:

• systematic literature searching across education and professional learning research
• screening and organising academic sources
• structured data extraction using a predefined framework
• supporting synthesis of findings to identify key themes and pedagogic approaches

All work will be desk-based and can be carried out flexibly around doctoral study commitments.

Required knowledge, skills, qualifications & experience

Essential:

• Currently registered as a PhD student at the time of appointment
• Strong academic reading and synthesis skills
• Well organised, detail-oriented, and able to work independently

Desirable:

• Experience of literature reviews or qualitative research
• Interest in employability, skills development, or reflective learning
• Familiarity with education or pedagogic research (broadly defined)

Further details

Please submit:

• a short CV
• a brief statement (no more than one page) outlining your interest in the role and relevant experience

Interviews will take place during week commencing 23 March 2026.

For any informal queries, please contact Stephanie Tiller.

The University of Birmingham restricts all students to working up to 20 hours per week during term time for a maximum of 13 consecutive weeks. If your application is successful and your course does not follow the usual academic term timetable (e.g. PGT, PGR or PhD student), you and your supervisor must formally agree vacation periods if this role exceeds 20 hours per week. In addition to this, please be aware if you are an international student you will be required to apply to the Registry for the appropriate authorised absence. You are only eligible to apply to this role if you are a current University of Birmingham student. If you are not a University of Birmingham student your application will not be considered.

To work you will need to carry out a right to work check. These checks will need to be completed prior to work commencing.

Regarding the use of AI in applications, we review hundreds of applications and shortlist candidates based on their unique perspective, motivations and potential. Cover letters generated through, or edited by, AI tools (e.g. ChatGPT or CoPilot) are easy to identify. They produce generic answers and will not score highly enough to progress. You may use AI tools for research, but all written content in your application must be your own work. Authenticity and originality are key to standing out in this process. Due to the high volume of applications we receive, we’re unable to contact all applicants individually. You can check the progress of your application by logging into the Worklink jobs portal using the same email address you used to apply. If you haven’t heard back within six weeks of the closing date, please assume your application has been unsuccessful.

Our Shared Values:

• Ambitious: We are confident in the University of Birmingham and project this globally. We are focused on our goals, are clear about our strengths, and pursue our own direction. We are bold and take intelligent risks.
• Innovative: We enjoy being the first to do things. Inspired by our Birmingham heritage, we are resourceful, creative, grounded, and practical, and seek to make a real and positive difference to the world around us.
• Open: We welcome colleagues, collaborators, and students from across the world to work and study with us. We are committed to academic freedom, freedom of speech, and equality of opportunity for all. We expect everyone to act with sensitivity, respect, and fairness.
• Collaborative: The major challenges facing our city, nation, and the world cannot be solved if we act alone. We enhance our research and education by pursuing creative partnerships within and beyond the University.
• Responsible: We operate with transparency, trust, and respect. We value our role as an anchor institution for Birmingham. We strive to be an excellent employer, to reduce inequalities in access to education, and to place sustainability at the heart of our work.