Operations Assistant

Salary: £27,319.00 - £29,588.00  per annum pro rata

Newcastle University is a great place to work, with excellent benefits. We have a generous holiday package; plus the opportunity to buy more, great pension schemes and a number of health and wellbeing initiatives to support you.

Closing Date: 26 March 2026

The Role

The Student Health and Wellbeing Service is seeking to appoint an experienced candidate to the role of Operations Assistant. The candidate will provide bespoke, professional and accurate information to applicants, students, staff and third parties on the array of queries and tasks related to Student Health and Wellbeing, taking responsibility for ensuring a suitable response is provided to more complex queries where further advice has been sought from Wellbeing Advisers.  The role occupies a key role within the service to manage day to day information systems alongside completing routine administrative tasks.  Please visit our webpages for further information on the range of services offered by Student Health and Wellbeing.  

The role is campus based. There may be occasional flexible hybrid working dependent on service need. This is a part time position, 29.6 hours (4 days) per week 9am-5pm, including Monday and Tuesday.

We welcome applications from people from all backgrounds. We are a Disability Confident employer which means that we offer an interview to any applicant applying under the scheme that meets the essential criteria for a role.

If you are interested in applying and would like an informal chat about the role, please contact Stephanie Matthews by emailing Stephanie.Matthews@ncl.ac.uk.  You can also find further information about the Student Health and Wellbeing Service online.

Main Purpose

• To manage information provision to all users of the Student Health and Wellbeing Service; offering specialist information and signposting on a broad range of wellbeing issues and completing routine administrative tasks.

Main Duties and Responsibilities

• Manage day-to-day receipt of initial enquiries to the Disability, Mental Health Adviser and Specialist Learning Teams. This includes enquiries from a range of internal and external stake holders that are received via Web form, customer relationship management (CRM), post, email and telephone.
• Provide bespoke, professional and accurate information to applicants, students, staff and third parties on the array of queries and tasks related to Student Health and Wellbeing, taking responsibility for ensuring a suitable response is provided to more complex queries where further advice has been sought.
• Manage upload of Student Support Plans to the corporate student record system and dissemination of notifications to academic units.
• Manage bookings for one-to-one student appointments and workshops for the teams.
• Provide bespoke advice and information to students and stakeholders on matters relating to arrangement of diagnostic assessment, Disabled Students’ Allowances (DSAs) and general support available to students at Newcastle University.
• Develop and maintain a frequently asked questions guide for students and staff on the service web pages.
• Assist service managers with updates to service information including maintenance of web pages.
• Assist the teams with preparation of training materials and keeping records of the training events delivered by Student Health and Wellbeing.
• Contribute to the effective and efficient running of the service through a collaborative team approach, providing assistance to colleagues as appropriate.
• Maintain and update information on the corporate student record systems and service data bases in line with service standards, logging all service requests and actions to be taken to ensure an accurate student record and effecitve management of information.
• Assist students to complete application forms for DSAs or other financial supports related to a disability.
• Manage receipt of correspondence from funding bodies, contacting students where appropriate and reporting information to Wellbeing advisers.
• Gather and collate customer feedback and data on service activities, and report to service managers.
• Process SAP purchases/sales invoices, income and other financial transactions on the University databases, ensuring records are accurately and promptly maintained.
• Event management, including preparations for Visit Days and other Student Health and Wellbeing activities throughout the year.
• Generate detailed reports from core University and Service systems to monitor student engagement, retention and progression as part of service monitoring exercises.
• Provide assistance to, and cover for, other areas of the Student Health and Wellbeing Service as required.  

Person Specification

Qualifications 

• A-Level/NVQ Leve 3 (or equivalent) in a relevant discipline with experience in a similar role, or GCSE Grades A-C (or equivalent) in English and Maths plus significant experience in a similar role. Alternatively, substantial demonstrable experience in an equivalent role.

Knowledge, Skills and Experience

• Knowledge of/ sensitivity to multicultural and disability issues.
• Ability to work both independently and flexibly as part of a specialist team based on the demands of the Service.
• Strong attention to detail with a commitment to data accuracy and integrity.
• Ability to work on own initiative and prioritise workload.
• Knowledge of student funding arrangements and funding for disabled students.
• Experience of managing confidential information and a working knowledge of data protection requirements.
• Experience of working with students / young people.
• Good interpersonal skills, including listening, negotiating and influencing whilst interacting with a wide range of stakeholders within a work context.
• Substantial experience of working within complex, busy and varied customer focused service, including handling large numbers of queries over a range of activities.
• Ability to interpret and apply knowledge of policies and procedures.
• Experience of successfully using complex IT systems in delivering an integrated customer service for students and other service users.
• Experience of ability to deal with customers who may be upset or assertive.

Desirable

• An awareness of legislation relevant to the role.
• Knowledge of pastoral and academic support mechanisms for students.
• Knowledge of SAP or similar systems.

Newcastle University is a global University where everyone is treated with dignity and respect.  As a University of Sanctuary, we aim to provide a welcoming place of safety for all, offering opportunities to people fleeing violence and persecution.

We are committed to being a fully inclusive university which actively recruits, supports and retains colleagues from all sectors of society.  We value diversity as well as celebrate, support and thrive on the contributions of all of our employees and the communities they represent.  We are proud to be an equal opportunities employer and encourage applications from individuals who can complement our existing teams, we believe that success is built on having teams whose backgrounds and experiences reflect the diversity of our university and student population.

At Newcastle University we hold a Gold Athena Swan award in recognition of our good employment practices for the advancement of gender equality.  We also hold a Race Equality Charter Bronze award in recognition of our work towards tackling race inequality in higher education REC.  We are a Disability Confident employer and will offer an interview to disabled applicants who meet the essential criteria for the role as part of the offer and interview scheme.

In addition, we are a member of the Euraxess initiative supporting researchers in Europe. 

Requisition ID: 29158