Learning & Teaching Manager (Maternity Cover) - Grade 7 - 7269Z

Position Details

School of Social Policy

University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham UK
 
Full time starting salary is normally in the range £30,942 to £40,322. With potential progression once in post to £42,792 a year.

Grade 7
  
Full time

Fixed term contract maternity cover from 13th September 2021 to 12th September 2022
 
Closing Date: 18th July 2021

Job Purpose

The School of Social Policy’s mission is ‘to understand the world – but also to change it’. This means carrying out high quality and relevant research, but then using this as a starting point for making a practical difference in the real world through our teaching, our professional training, our policy advice and our work with local communities, the public and the media. 

The post holder will join with a supportive and highly motivated team of key management & leadership roles in the School of Social Policy. They will report directly to the Head of Operations. The post holder will manage a School wide team of Postgraduate and Undergraduate Administrative staff through intermediary managers in a range of grades spanning the 3 Departments within the School – the Health Service Management Centre, the Department of Social Policy and Social Work and the Department of Social Policy, Sociology & Criminology. The post holder will also support any eLearning activity within the School to ensure consistency of practice and delivery of the College strategy. 

The post holder will be responsible for recommending and delivering School Strategy in respect of Learning & Teaching and as such the post holder will work very closely with the Head of Education (HoE) in developing and delivering new strategic initiatives and will play a pivotal role in this respect. The post holder will take a strategic and operational view of all UG, PG and research programmes and will be the School’s primary point of contact for all College initiatives in this respect. 

The post holder will undertake the management of temporary teaching and GTA contracts and will ensure compliance to University procedures and legal requirements. 

The post holder will work independently, whilst consulting with senior academic staff and the Head of Operations over developments and implementation of procedures to support changes and growth of student numbers. The post holder will lead and participate in cross College initiatives to share best practice and work with colleagues in the Academic Office to develop and implement consistent processes and procedures. The post holder will be required to use an open and inclusive leadership style to gain commitment from support and academic staff for any initiatives they implement. They will be responsible for ensuring that the high quality of academic provision is maintained in existing and new teaching programmes through benchmarking and keeping abreast of developments in other institutions by ongoing research and networking. 

The School is keen to exploit opportunities to collaborate with other Schools and external partners and the post holder will be proactive in identifying opportunities and communicating these to the HoE and School Management Team. 

The post holder will be required to use an open and inclusive leadership style to gain commitment from support and academic staff for any initiatives they implement. They will be responsible for ensuring that the high quality of academic provision is maintained in existing and new teaching programmes through benchmarking and keeping abreast of developments in other institutions by ongoing research and networking. 

Main Duties and Responsibilities

Manage a cross School team of Learning and Teaching professional service staff 

•    Lead, manage and motivate a team of staff in delivering the administrative support to teaching across the School. Working practices and procedures will be reviewed consistently over time in order to deliver effective teaching priorities across the School. 
•    Responsibility for ensuring that the teams deliver a streamlined and consistent operational service by providing strong leadership and direction and ensuring University, College and School priorities are understood and effectively applied and promulgated throughout the School. 
•    The post holder will represent the Head of Operations at their request.

Work closely with the Head of Education (HoE) to develop and implement the School strategy. 

•    Work on own initiative in identifying areas of opportunity for improvement or expansion and the streamlining of the current teaching provision and portfolio. 
•    Identifying and analysing activities of competitor institutions both public and private, benchmarking of activities and recommendations to the HoE in order to forge ahead of the current market leaders in terms of the School’s academic portfolio and reputation. 
•    Assessing Programmes for viability and sustainability in addition to academic merit. 
•    Work with other key members of administrative and management staff in delivering this at School and College level. 

Play a pivotal role in the development of a consistent and coherent School-wide approach to teaching. 

•    Lead on assessing existing working practices associated with learning and teaching, identify areas of weakness, best practice and use this to formulate and implement consistent processes and procedures within the School. 
•    Nurture good working relationships to ensure effective upward communication of School initiatives, also ensuring the University Planning & Policy Development processes and procedures are promulgated effectively within the School. 

Represent the School on all issues associated with the administration of Learning and Teaching. 

•    School contact in all teaching related administration activity between the School, the College of Social Sciences and the University. 
•    Lead in driving for change, in collaboration with Corporate Services and College, where it is identified that these will improve efficiency and effectiveness. 
•    Actively keep up to date with changes in University policy which impact upon the School, recommend how they should be implemented, re-evaluate and realign School policies in the light of changes in University policy and lead on the implementation of any changes which are required. 

Support the effective marketing of School Teaching Programmes. 

•    Working with the HoE and College teams,  develop a School wide approach to marketing. Exploiting synergies between departments where they exist in order to increase effectiveness of marketing expenditure. 

•    Develop a clear roadmap of annual teaching events in order to support marketing activity. They will also be responsible for monitoring and analysing competitor activity and making recommendations for School initiatives to the Learning and Teaching committee 

Responsible for all administrative quality assurance mechanisms within the School working closely with the Head of Education and the School Academic Programme leads. 

•    Act as administrative lead for all aspects of quality assurance within the School, ensuring that all necessary quality assurance procedures are followed and ensuring new and existing procedures meet quality assurance standards. 
•    Work with the College and School Quality lead in reviewing and delivering effective process and procedures to meet the requirements of the Institutional Audit. 
•    Proactively monitor developments in QAA and other external guidelines in order to keep the School Teaching and Professional Service staff up to date with current regulations and ensure that these regulations are applied. 
•    Responsibility for all processes relating to External Examiner administration, which will include evaluating and monitoring administrative systems relating to examinations and External Examiners reports, implementing any appropriate procedural changes and assessing their effectiveness. 
•    Act as the School administrative lead on the University Programme and Module Approval process and offer advice and guidance to staff on all aspects of the process and related paperwork. 
•    Ensure the accurate and timely submission of paperwork to the relevant contact in the University and monitoring the progress through the stages of approval as appropriate. Evaluate specific aspects of the QA process and producing reports and recommendations following evaluation. 

Person Specification

Essential Criteria: 

• Educated to degree level or equivalent, or proven relevant equivalent experience 
•    Proven relevant administrative experience across a range of activities
•    Experience of managing groups of professional services staff through intermediate managers to achieve common goals to a high standard
• Excellent leadership and management skills and the ability to motivate teams and manage performance
• The ability to work under pressure, manage competing priorities, and complete tasks based on only broad direction and with minimum supervision. 
• Strong interpersonal skills, including tact and diplomacy, able to inspire confidence and command authority with the proven ability to lead and motivate beyond formal levels of authority, and to negotiate with and influence stakeholders at all levels of seniority 
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills and the ability to produce a variety of documentation including strategies, operational plans, business cases, minutes and other reports
• Problem-solving and organisational skills, with the ability to deal with complex and/or difficult situations 
• Strong attention to detail 
• The ability to think critically, to analyse complex data and produce meaningful reports that influence policy and facilitate decision-making
• A high degree of initiative, resourcefulness, flexibility and a self-motivating approach. 
•    Evidence of working with a focus on excellence and continuous service improvement and experience of successfully delivering in a people and service-driven environment. 
• An interest in and knowledge of the Higher Education environment  in particular relating to student education

Desirable: 
• Experience of student-facing administration within higher education 
• Change and project management experience 

Please contact Angela Storer, Head of Operations at [email protected]   

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. 

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