Centre Administrator

Role: Centre Administrator

Grade and Salary: Grade 5, £25,138 – £29,605 per annum

FTE and working pattern: 0.7 FTE, 24.5 hours per week

Contract: Fixed term until August 2032

Holiday Entitlement: 28 days annual leave plus 9 buildings closed days (and Christmas Eve when it falls on a weekday)

Purpose of Role

The role holder will be responsible for providing administrative support within the Centres for Doctoral Training (CDTs) in Algebra, Geometry & Quantum Fields (AGQ) and in Sensing, Processing & AI for Defence & Security (SPADS) to both students undertaking the programmes and staff leading the Centres. 

The job will be varied and interesting covering the areas of application and recruitment, admission, enrolment, monitoring, event organisation and general student support in a small multitasking team. The role holder will report to the Centre Managers, but will also have to interact with (academic and administrative) staff based at the partner universities of the CDTs. Some flexibility and the ability to travel between partner universities of the CDTs is required by the role holder. There will be occasional working outside normal working hours. The role holder will liaise with external bodies such as industrial partners, partner universities and funding bodies. The role holder is willing to help and be supportive of students, academics, colleagues and partners, and will be committed to the diversity and inclusion aims of the CDTs as outlined in the ED&I documents, see for instance https://spads.ac.uk/equality-diversity-and-inclusion-statement

Key Duties & Responsibilities

Enquiries 

• Dealing efficiently with general enquiries by telephone, e-mail, in person and via MS Teams to provide a high level of customer service.

Committee Organisation and Minutes 

Organising Committee meetings; room booking, catering, circulation of meeting papers, accurate minute taking for various CDT committees. 

• CDT Executive (monthly) 
• CDT Management Committee (annually/biannually) 
• CDT Independent Advisory Committee (annually)

Event Organisation

• Assisting with organisation of events such as induction events to ensure they run smoothly. 

Travel Booking 

• Booking travel, accommodation and conferences for students and staff and recording expenditure for students’ travel budgets. 

Finance 

• Use of ERP Finance for preparing purchase orders, invoicing and catering orders. Use and reconciling HWU purchasing card. 

Industry Projects and Liaison with External Bodies 

• Dealing with external bodies such as Industrial Sponsors, Partner Higher Education Institutes and Funding Councils.
• Liaise with Centre Directors regarding industrial project approval.
• Post projects on CDT website, FindAPhD, Twitter and other social media.
• File Project Proposals & Maintain Projects Log.

Student Records 

• Maintaining highly accurate student records throughout the academic year. 
• Setting up new students and maintaining information to Student Database & Banner.
• Initiating, recording and maintaining flow of processes for new students eg Code of Practice and Approved Supervisors and ensuring the process is concluded. 
• Maintaining Email distribution lists (students, academic and industrial supervisors, alumni). 
• Adding new student records to JeS and updating fee/stipend information on an annual basis.

Marketing 

• Assisting with Centre marketing activities including Twitter, Centre Annual Report and posting news stories on the CDT website,
• Maintaining marketing mailing lists ensuring compliance with GDPR, 
• Gathering information for publications such as the CDT Annual Report,
• Preparing Marketing material,

Student Recruitment 

• Assisting with the annual student recruitment and admissions process to ensure the Centres recruit students of the highest calibre.
• Responding to pre-application and enquiries from applicants.
• Downloading and filing applications, obtaining supporting documentation, preparing the application pack and recording and maintaining applicant records. 
• processing offers and rejections using CRM-Recruit and CDT offer letters.
• Organising applicant interviews. 
• Liaising with industrial sponsors. 
• Preparing recruitment statistics.

Reviews, Appraisals and Progression 

• Assisting with Quarterly Reviews, Annual Appraisal for students using Microsoft Flow. Recording receipt and filing appraisal reports. 
• Initiating, recording and maintaining flow of Amendment to Registration and Submission of Thesis Titles & Appointment of Examiner through to approval by Research Degrees Committee. Including processing limited access to thesis and confidentiality requests. 
• Processing, recording, and maintaining Amendment to Registration requests. Including updating Banner and CDT database. 
• Processing Temporary Suspension of Studies. 

Please note that this job description is not exhaustive, and the role holder may be required to undertake other relevant duties commensurate with the grading of the post. Activities may be subject to amendment over time as the role develops and/or priorities and requirements evolve.

Essential & Desirable Criteria

Essential

1. Educated to SVQ Level 3 or equivalent.
2. Good level of competency in written and spoken English. 
3. Experience of working within a confidential office environment as outlined above. 
4. Competent in the use of Microsoft Outlook, Excel and Word. 
5. Well-developed interpersonal skills.
6. Demonstrable excellent customer service. 
7. Demonstrable ability to work quickly, flexibly and accurately in a dynamic, changing and pressured environment. 
8. Demonstrable professional and proactive approach. 
9. Experience of organising interviews, meetings and minute taking. 
10. Experience in the use of Adobe Creative Cloud software packages.

Desirable

1. Experience in Higher Education.
2. Experience in organising events such as conferences and seminars.
3. Experience of booking travel and accommodation.
4. Experience of social media and electronic newsletters.
5. Competent in the use of Ellucian systems – CRM Recruit and Banner.
6. Competent in the use of Oracle 12 for preparing purchase orders.

Knowledge, Skills & Experience

1. Ability and willingness to learn new digital skills and capabilities appropriate to your role and how it evolves
2. Understand and adhere to information security practices particularly as it relates to personal or sensitive information
3. Maintain awareness of my own digital wellbeing by being mindful of the length of time spent at a screen and the impact on mental and physical health in using digital technologies.

How to Apply

Applications can be submitted up to midnight (UK time) on Friday 23rd August 2024.

Please submit your CV & covering letter via the Heriot-Watt on-line recruitment.

We welcome and will consider flexible working patterns e.g., part-time working and job share options.

Heriot-Watt University is committed to securing equality of opportunity in employment and to the creation of an environment in which individuals are selected, trained, promoted, appraised, and otherwise treated on the sole basis of their relevant merits and abilities. Equality and diversity are all about maximising potential and creating a culture of inclusion for all.

Heriot-Watt University values diversity across our university community and welcomes applications from all sectors of society, particularly from underrepresented groups. For more information, please see our website https://www.hw.ac.uk/uk/services/equality-diversity.htm and also our award-winning work in Disability Inclusive Science Careers https://disc.hw.ac.uk/ .

Use our total rewards calculator: https://www.hw.ac.uk/about/work/total-rewards-calculator.htm to see the value of benefits provided by Heriot-Watt University.

About Heriot-Watt University

At Heriot-Watt we are passionate about our values and look to them to connect our people globally and to help us collaborate and celebrate our success through working together. Our research programmes can deliver real world impact which is achieved through the diversity of our international community and the recognition of creative talent that connects our global team.

Our flourishing community will give you the freedom to challenge and to bring your enterprising mind and to help our partners with solutions that can be applied now and in the future. Join us and Heriot Watt will provide you with a platform to thrive and work in a way that also helps you live your life in balance with well-being and inclusiveness at the heart of our global community.

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