Jobwatch: Be part of a new wave

Hertfordshire University is looking for 31 staff, including heads of marketing and tourism, in its push for expansion. Chris Johnston looks at the requirements of an institution on the rise

Hertfordshire University is advertising 31 new posts as part of a major investment in teaching and learning that aims to complement and enhance academic expertise across the institution. The move follows the building of the de Havilland campus in Hatfield, which opened in September, including a £15 million sports village.

Student numbers have continued to grow at Hertfordshire and it now has some 17,000 undergraduates and a further 3,000 postgraduates. Many have been attracted by some of the highest teaching quality assessment scores of any university in the country. The Times ' recent table of top universities rated its teaching as 21.8 out of 24, comparable with Bath and Southampton.

Hertfordshire was awarded university status in 1992, but was already well known as Hatfield Polytechnic, created in 1969 from a technical college.

Twelve of the new positions advertised are in the Business School, including two heads of department, three professorships and seven at lecturer/senior lecturer level. The most senior jobs will be heading the new departments of marketing and tourism and management systems. Successful applicants may be considered for professorships.

Professors or readers are sought in finance, marketing and human resource management, along with lecturers in tourism, information systems, accounting and finance, operational research, marketing and human resource management.

The School of Electronic, Communication and Electrical Engineering is recruiting three lecturer/senior lecturers in digital and multimedia systems and one each in multimedia systems and digital broadcast.

Four lectureships are offered in the School of Aerospace, Automotive and Design Engineering, one of the UK's top automotive engineering departments; two each in music and art and design; and one in a further five schools: humanities, law, computer science, health human sciences and continuing education and partnerships.

Meanwhile, the lecturer-level education liaison officer position in continuing education involves maintaining and developing links with local schools and managing the student ambassador scheme.

In October, the university will launch the Science Learning Centre East of England, funded by the Department for Education and Skills and the Wellcome Trust. It is one of eight regional centres that will support the teaching of science in schools and colleges across Britain, and it will be located at the Bayfordbury satellite campus, which reopens later this year after refurbishment.

Alan Johnson, the higher education minister, will visit the university on June 7 to officially open Hertfordshire's new innovation centre that assists business start-ups to get off the ground.