Senior Doctoral Training Hub Administrator

Job purpose

The Doctoral Training Hub (DT Hub) manages multiple Centres for Doctoral Training (CDT) and other funded cohort postgraduate programmes across the College of Science and Engineering. The DT Hub provides an innovative student and academic focused service providing end-to-end management and administration.

The DT Hub Senior Administrator will have operational responsibility to deliver high quality and effective support for two cross-institutional CDTs, EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Robotics and AI for Net Zero (RAINZ) and the EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Applied Quantum Technologies (AQT). The role includes responsibility for the delivery and enhancement of the overall student recruitment strategy, cohort development, organising innovative training programmes, budget management, reporting to the Director(s) and funding bodies.

Reports to: College of Science and Engineering Deputy Doctoral Training Hub Manager (Line Manager) and works directly with the RAINZ and AQT Directors for specific doctoral training centre requirements.

Main duties and responsibilities:

1. Deliver the student recruitment strategy to ensure the annual target number of students are recruited. This includes creating and updating CDT webpages, evaluating the effectiveness of social media for recruitment, and contributing to the CDT-specific marketing and communication strategy.
2. Oversee all operational aspects of student recruitment. This includes managing the entire annual process from start to finish supporting project calls, advertising, processing, and monitoring applications, organising interviews, issuing offer letters, and maintaining the recruitment tracker database.
3. Deliver an exceptional cross-institutional student experience by leading key activities such as induction, registration, enrolment, and annual reviews. Resolve issues independently and, when appropriate, recommend alternative courses of action to maintain a high quality of service delivery for students.
4. Ensure the successful delivery of the research and skills training programme, making sure all components are completed as required. This involves planning and coordinating directly with internal and external training providers, schools, and other universities to organise CDT-specific activities while maintaining accurate records of student completion details and skill training credits awarded.
5. Working with the Directors to plan, promote and facilitate appropriate schemes and programmes such as student internships, industry placements, international placements, etc. Additionally, support student-led activities such as conferences, mentoring groups, and webinar series.
6. Develop event specifications for retreats and conferences and support their delivery. This includes managing, planning, and booking cross-institutional travel arrangements.
7. Working with the Deputy DT Hub Manager, College Finance, and the Research Operations Manager, organise and manage all financial processes to ensure that RAINZ and AQT deliver on their forecasted budgets. This includes managing financial transactions between institutions, arranging new budgets for UKRI, University and external partner funding and ensuring expenditures align with the budget profile.
8. Monitor and manage studentship agreements between the CDT and the partner companies, as needed, this will include liaison directly with the contracts and legal team, the CDT Business Development Manager, and stakeholder companies.
9. Manage financial operational processes, including the financial aid process to ensure fees and stipends are processed in a timely manner, raising purchase orders as required, processing student expense claim forms and providing expenditure reports for student travel and consumable budgets.
10. Manage and present regular management status reports to the Doctoral Hub Manager, CDT Directors, and Management Teams and coordinate activities to support. This is to include, as appropriate, KPIs, project risk, project key activities, action logs, outreach data, recommendations, etc. This information will inform decision-making and facilitate the expediting of actions and activities as appropriate.
11. Provide committee administration support to the Management Committees, the External Advisory Board and any other committees as required. This will include the production of agenda, papers, minutes and acting as the liaison officer communicating and coordinating activities between committees and the CDT Directors.
12. Be responsible for the maintenance of cross-institutional record management and work with the Graduate School to maintain accurate student records across internal and external record management systems, e.g. MyCampus and Je-S.
13. Be the senior administrative contact for students and academic staff, providing authoritative advice in relation to the CDT and postgraduate student lifecycle.
14. Identify and make recommendations on changes to internal processes and procedures, contributing to a culture of continuous improvement, enhancing service delivery, whilst meeting internal and external expectations.
15. Ensuring that CDT Directors and Management Teams adhere to university and external policies and procedures, for example, student eligibility guidelines and financial terms and conditions.
16. Other duties as directed by the Deputy DT Hub Manager (line manager) and requested by RAINZ or AQT Directors.

Knowledge, Qualifications, Skills, and Experience

Knowledge/Qualifications

Essential:

A1 Ability to demonstrate the competencies required to undertake the duties associated with this level of post having acquired the necessary knowledge and skills through personal development and progression in a similar related role(s).

Or: Scottish Credit and Qualification Framework level 8 (Scottish Vocational Qualification level 4, Higher National Diploma) or equivalent, and experience of personal development in a similar role.

Desirable:

B1 An understanding of structured doctoral training programmes in the UK.

B2 Excellent knowledge and understanding of university structures, policies, practices, and procedures.

Skills

Essential:

C1 Excellent organisation, coordination, and time management skills with proven ability to prioritise workloads, and to plan and implement activities to meet tight deadlines.

C2 Self-motivated and able to work proactively, take appropriate initiative, and have proven ability to work independently without supervision and in a team.

C3 Excellent communication skills with the ability to communicate clearly, concisely, and professionally with staff at all levels of seniority, including research and professional service staff.

C4 Ability to examine and contribute to ongoing operational and procedural efficiency improvements.

C5 Ability to understand and apply policies, regulations, guidelines, and standard operating procedures.

C6 Excellent IT skills including a detailed operational knowledge of spreadsheets and databases.

C7 Ability to use initiative and judgement to resolve problems independently.

C8 Ability to build effective working relationships with both internal and external stakeholders.

C9 Ability to handle confidential and sensitive matters with absolute discretion and diplomacy.

C10 Strong interpersonal and customer service skills.

C11 Ability to work flexibly and adapt to changing environments.

Desirable:

D1 Ability to assess risks and financial implications.

Experience

Essential:

E1 Experience of personal development in a similar role.

E2 Experience of working with a wide variety of colleagues and key contacts, both internal and external to your immediate team/department/organisation.

E3 Proven decision-making, involving independent analysis and judgement.

Desirable:

F1 Experience within or providing support for a PGR cohort-based training centre.

F2 Experience in managing budgets and reporting on expenditure.

Terms and Conditions

Salary will be Grade 6, £33,232 - £36,924 per annum.

This post is full time (35 hours per week), and has funding available for up to 5 years in the first instance.

Closing Date: 23:45 on 26th March 2025