Administrator - Institute of Advanced Studies

Position Details

Finance Office

Location: University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham UK

Full time starting salary is normally in the range £22,722 to £24,411, with potential progression once in post to £25,259

Band 500

Full Time - Permanent

Job Summary

The Institute of Advanced Studies (IAS) supports interdisciplinary research by combining expertise from across the breadth of the University of Birmingham to address major crosscutting themes that are important, relevant and timely.

Established in 2013, and now working alongside the Institute for Global Innovation which are both dynamic and creative parts of the University of Birmingham's research support landscape. The Institute of Advanced Studies continues to harness intellectual capital across the University and beyond to the wider international community.

The Institute Administrator is a critical member of the IAS team, the first point of contact taking responsibility for the Institute's day to day activities and programmes including event organisation and management, financial processes, budget monitoring, communication, support for Visiting Fellows and IAS research projects. This is a diverse role providing a unique opportunity for an administrator who has initiative, energy and creativity alongside skills and knowledge of general principles and standard practices in administration.

Main Duties

Events and Workshops

To organise and co-ordinate all aspects of IAS cross-disciplinary workshops, public seminars, lectures, debates, conferences and networking events.

• Working with academic and professional services colleagues and external partners during the design stage and development of the agenda for each event in order to ensure maximum engagement and desired outcomes/achievements.
• Liaising with delegates on behalf of event leaders to arrange and book travel and accommodation.

Visiting Fellows

To co-ordinate all aspects of the visits of International Distinguished Fellows.

• Organising travel, accommodation and all practical aspects of Fellowship visits.
• Providing administrative support for Fellows to achieve visit objectives including research activities and events.

Communication

To communicate with the wide range of stakeholders of the Institute.

• Maintaining and developing the IAS communications plan to build, relationships with key internal and external contacts.
• Maintaining and developing the IAS website and social media presence
• Development of other content and marketing materials that help to build IAS's brand as required.
• Publicising IAS events internally and externally.

Administration

To be the first point of contact and be responsible for the smooth day-to-day running of the Institute, including:

• Running IAS financial processes, including purchasing (internal and external), expenses, ensuring prompt and smooth financial operations and precise record keeping.
• Maintaining systems and procedures to ensure accurate records and reporting across all IAS activity.
• Supporting the alignment of administrative processes with The Institute for Global Innovation.
• Pro-actively assisting the on-going development of the Institute's values, standards, service levels, and professional ethos within the overall strategic objectives of the University and the Birmingham Professional agenda.
• Ensuring that the role and its responsibilities are delivered in accordance with procedures and regulations as defined by the University of Birmingham; to be pro-active in offering advice based on these regulations and procedures to staff, students and visitors where required and appropriate; and to contribute to the objective of making the University and friendly place for students, staff, and visitors.
• Willingness to work the occasional evening and weekend.
• To undertake such other duties as may be reasonably be required.
• The specific areas of responsibility and/or tasks may change from time to time in accordance with the requirements of the Institute and its priorities.

Qualifications and Experience

• Good educational standard equivalent to A-Level, including evidence of strong literacy and numeracy as evidenced by GCSE passes at grade A* - C (or equiv.) in English and Maths.
• Experience of events management.
• Excellent Microsoft Office skills, including spread sheets and databases.
• Experience of Finance systems and procedures in a large and complex organisation.

Knowledge and Skills

• The ability to work precisely and accurately consistently.
• Flexibility to take on a wide variety of tasks; adaptable and dependable.
• Excellent writing skills and the ability to accurately proofread edit and format documents.
• Ability to support finances and monitor budgets.
• Ability to engage effectively, to establish, develop and maintain effective working relationships with a range of people; academic and administrative colleagues, external organisations and visitors.
• The ability and willingness to quickly learn new software in support of the role, in particular the use of CMS web content programmes and an understanding of writing content and copy for Webpages.
• Experience of working to deadlines and managing competing priorities.
• Effective team working skills.
• Ability to act on own initiative, taking a flexible pro-active approach to work.
• An ability to use own judgment to resolve problems and to make decisions on own initiative
• The ability to exercise discretion regarding the handling and management of sensitive information.
• Experience or knowledge of supporting research activity in a large and complex organisation.
• Proficient in Social Media use and social media monitoring, for example twitter and Facebook.

Informal enquires to Sue Gilligan s.gilligan@bham.ac.uk

We value diversity at The University of Birmingham and welcome applications from all sections of the community'. Valuing excellence; sustaining investment