Doctoral Student Development Administrator

Job description

 

We are looking for an organised and enthusiastic administrator to support the Doctoral Student Environment and Development Team in the King’s Centre for Doctoral Studies on a fixed-term basis for nine months.

 

Working as part of a collegial and supportive team, you will contribute to the smooth running of our large programme of development activities offered to the ~3000 postgraduate research students at King’s. This will involve liaising with external trainers, setting up training courses (online and occasionally on campus), collecting course feedback, and responding to email queries from students, academics, and other colleagues.  

 

You will have a collaborative, team-focused outlook, with experience of providing strong administrative support to projects, and will be able to manage a high volume of activities, taking a methodical and conscientious approach. 

 

You should have excellent interpersonal skills, taking a facilitative approach to addressing enquiries, and developing professional working relationships with both internal and external stakeholders, particularly the PGR student community. 

 

The programmes of training and development managed by the team include both the core   doctoral training programme, and the   Health Sciences Doctoral Training Centre (HSDTC).  

 

Our friendly, professional community at King’s embraces a culture with a deep respect for individual differences, and we encourage applications from people with a diverse range of experiences. Our   employee benefits include flexible working, development opportunities, wellbeing and community support. 

 

The Doctoral Student Environment and Development Team works on a hybrid basis, combining remote working with regular in-person contact at our Lavington Street offices. The post is available on a full-time basis, but applicants are welcome to propose flexible working arrangements, and reduced hours on a pro-rata basis will be considered.  

 

This post will be offered on an a fixed-term contract for 9 months 

 

Key responsibilities

•         Providing administrative support to the Doctoral Student Environment and Development team: e.g. triaging and responding to email queries, setting up meetings, organising catering, taking notes in meetings, updating training attendance records, sending training joining instructions to delegates, confirming dates with trainers.  

•         Maintaining accurate and up-to-date information on Centre for Doctoral Studies (CDS) training activities, including booking systems, and internal and external web pages. 

•         Monitoring and reporting on budget expenditure 

•         Ensuring prompt payment of suppliers via relevant processes and systems. 

•         Under the direction of the Doctoral Student Development Manager and Officer, support the organisation of training and development opportunities and commissioning of external training providers. e.g. researching new training providers for particular courses, setting up meetings for potential trainers to meet the team, getting a new trainer set up on finance system. 

•         Supporting engagement with PGR students and stakeholders with regard to training and development e.g. organising meetings, taking notes, developing marketing materials (e.g. via email, web pages). 

•         Administer shared mailboxes, answering straightforward enquiries clearly, professionally and precisely, and distributing more complicated matters onto others. 

•         Taking a proactive approach to identifying and promoting training and development opportunities available outside of CDS e.g. other depts at King’s, externally. 

•         Editing content on King’s virtual learning environment or web pages e.g, for pre- or post-course materials. 

•         Using social media platforms to promote training and development opportunities, particularly where events or resources are under-subscribed. 

•         Collecting attendance and feedback data, and creating basic reports in Excel for discussion at team meetings, and to feed into annual reports. 

 

The above list of responsibilities may not be exhaustive, and the post holder will be required to undertake such tasks and responsibilities as may reasonably be expected within the scope and grading of the post.  

 

Skills, knowledge, and experience 

 

Essential criteria  

1.       An enthusiasm and motivation to understand the research environment and postgraduate research student career path

2.       Track record of collaborating effectively as part of a team.

3.       A proactive communicator, with excellent written and verbal communication skills.

4.       Strong interpersonal and relationship management skills. 

5.       Excellent planning and organisational skills, able to execute multiple tasks to manage competing priorities. 

6.       Highly computer literate and demonstrable ability to use the Microsoft Office 365 Suite – including SharePoint, Excel, Outlook and Teams. 

7.       Detailed and focused approach, ability to record and manage data accurately, and in accordance with GDPR and legislation requirements.  

8.       Able to manipulate and interpret data, e.g. via Excel, and present this to team members e.g. via written reports or in meetings.

Desirable criteria

1.       Experience of working in higher education. 

2.       Training or event management experience. 

3.       Budget management experience. 

4.       Experience of website editing and content management system. 

 

Further information

Interviews will take place online and will include a short task focusing on written communication skills.