School Manager

Salary: £44,414 to £47,047 with progression to £52,841 per annum

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 2023

The Role

This is an exciting opportunity for a people orientated leader to join the Faculty of Medical Sciences, managing our School of Medicine, one of the Faculty’s five Schools.

Located on our main city centre campus, the School of Medicine provides works closely with clinical partners across the North East and Cumbria and with colleagues in our branch campus in Malaysia to improve health through the training of excellent doctors, physician associates and medical educators.  The School delivers four significant programmes in the Faculty: the MBBS, the Physician Associate programme, the Medical Education programme and the Clinical Sciences programme.  Further information about the School can be found at: https://www.ncl.ac.uk/medicine/.

Working closely with the Head of School and School’s Senior Management Team you will lead and manage the School’s community of professional staff, overseeing the operations and strategic development of administrative support services for education, research and impact within the School to meet the objectives of the School, Faculty and University. 

You will have overall responsibility for ensuring all the School support for activities relating to education and student experience are carried out effectively and with a commitment to enhanced efficiency and quality. This includes building and leading relationships with key business partners across the Faculty and University and working to support excellent service delivery and a ‘one team’ culture. You will be a member of the Senior Leadership community, working closely with other leaders and teams, sharing good practice, and supporting consistent approaches.

Working closely with our academic community, you will develop an in-depth understanding of the Faculty and School business and work with key business partners/Community Leads to deliver an effective professional service. You will be people focused, excellent at building relationships with key stakeholders and support a collaborative environment, fostering a culture of trust and mutual respect.

You will be a team player and comfortable working in a matrix structure. You will be a proactive problem solver.  Most importantly, you will have the ability to negotiate and influence colleagues you do not directly line manage.

Informal enquiries should be directed to Muriel Snowdon, Deputy Director of Faculty Operations muriel.snowdon@ncl.ac.uk

Interviews will be held on Thursday 13th April

Key Accountabilities

1. Delivering an efficient administrative support service for staff, students and external customers of the School, including:

• Leading and managing a team of administrative support staff
• Overall responsibility for performance management, assessing and meeting development and training needs, mentoring, developing and rewarding administration support service staff
• Overseeing the work of the administrative team in order to provide co-ordinated administrative support across the School
• First point of contact for administrative matters with Faculty and University
• Co-ordinating responses to requests from the University for information on behalf of the Institute

2. Assisting with the preparation and implementation of the School short, medium, and long term plans, including leading the development of and implementation of School-wide strategies and decisions
3. Responsible for the financial planning and management for the School in line with and in support of the Faculty’s planning process, including:

• Leading the annual student number planning exercise
• Developing and maintaining KPI-based budget planning solutions
• Working with the Finance Business Partner to ensure effective financial planning, management and sustainability of the Unit, including responsibility for the approval of expenditure within the framework of financial expenditure approvals, across the Faculty
• Working with the relevant Business Partners/Community Leads to ensure a coordinated and efficient professional support service is provided to the Institute, its academic and research members, student body, facilities, senior management team and external customers
• Supporting colleagues with guidance on People Services (HR) matters such as recruitment and appointments, resignations, contract renewal to ensure compliance with legislation and financial viability, including providing support with the appropriate university processes

4. Education

• Developing, implementing and managing, in close liaison with Academic staff, efficient mechanisms for the management of education and student experience. This includes but is not exclusive to the School’s timetabling process; Student Attendance Monitoring: Personal Extenuating Circumstances (PEC) for students
• Providing administrative leadership for Quality Assurance requirements and processes including: internal and external subject reviews, degree programme reviews, module and programme evaluation, professional accreditation arrangements. You will be the key individual in the School regarding accreditation processes and will be expected to develop an in-depth understanding of all the relevant accreditation rules, procedures and processes to provide expert technical advice

5. Research Support (where appropriate)

• To provide strategic advice and guidance to the Director of Research and Head of School in developing and implementing the School’s research strategy
• To ensure close working with the team of Research Support Officers to facilitate assistance in relation to School matters (such as letters of support, financial commitment, etc) for research and studentship funding applications and costing and pricing support and advice to academics.

6. Working together

• Reporting directly to the Deputy Director of Faculty Operations
• Deputising for the Head of School (in non-academic matters) and for other School Managers, as appropriate
• Representing and promoting the School to ensure that issues are presented and acted upon at senior management meetings and act as a Faculty representative for matters relating to education on Faculty and University Committees and Working Groups
• Ensuring a truly inclusive and respectful environment, by role modelling behaviours and ensuring the implementation of all Equality, Diversity and Inclusivity (ED&I) policies and action plans such as Athena SWAN.  You will be expected to lead on actions and initiatives which promote ED&I and which support the Faculty’s ambition to become an exemplar
• Working closely with the other School Managers and Institute Operations Managers sharing good practice and ensuring one way of working.  As a senior Professional Service leader, have collective responsibility for the vision of the Faculty, fostering a culture of service excellence
• Working very closely with all Managers and Business Partners across the Faculty to ensure that the matrix model works effectively and consistently
• Working with key business partners and Community colleagues you will lead and develop culture change to transform the professional services (PS) of the Faculty into a PS team, working in one way

7. Ensuring effective internal and external communications including oversight of the School’s web presence and Sharepoint, referring to the Faculty’s Data & Comms Community for guidance and support as required
8. Overseeing building management and estates planning, liaising with the School’s Executive, the University’s estates unit and others as required.  Providing local project management of activities
9. Collaborating with the Head of School and School Safety Officer, to develop and implement policies and processes concerning safety within the School, in order to ensure that the School complies with University policies and national Health & Safety legislation
10. Overseeing Emergency and Business Continuity planning for the School
11. Working under the direction of the Faculty Operations Board, ensure effective implementation of University policies and procedures
12. Communicate the University and Faculty Strategies, inspiring colleagues by bringing the Vision to life and giving it meaning in the context of the Faculty and its aspirations
13. Any other duties within the scope and general nature of the grade which may be required

The Person (Essential)

Knowledge, Skills and Experience

• Demonstrable experience of effective and successful leadership, with a proven track record of working with others to achieve a common goal
• Proven experience of working with and building teams, who work collaboratively and flexibly
• Intellectual capacity and strong influencing skills in complex stakeholder environments, getting ‘buy in’ to policy and strategy
• Able to demonstrate budgetary capability
• Experience of developing operational and strategic plans, and associated resource planning
• Experience of managing change and supporting people to make transitions.
• Success in working with and providing advice to senior colleagues
• Proven high level decision making and problem-solving skills, and a demonstrable ability to undertake initiatives, prioritise and plan appropriately
• Experience of developing and supporting people to fulfil their potential
• Knowledge and understanding of the education environment (desirable)

Attributes and Behaviour

• People orientated, is approachable and can motivate and engage others
• Works in partnership with others and has exceptional interpersonal and collaboration skills
• Effective leadership skills – can work with and empower others to achieve a common goal
• Demonstrates resilience to the demands of the role and pace of change and is open to learning from constructive challenge
• Able to act objectively in dealing with complex problems, issues and decision making.
• Able to manage conflicting priorities.
• Thinks creatively, an effective problem solver.
• Able to handle conflict in a timely and effective way, bringing situations to speedy resolution.
• Is inspirational and provides clear direction, particularly in times of uncertainty.
• Role model of the University values and guiding principles.
• Promotes a culture of mutual respect.

Qualifications

• Qualified to Degree level and / or with significant relevant management and leadership experience
   

Newcastle is an inclusive global University community 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 Global 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 our employees and the communities they represent.  We are proud to be an equal opportunities employer and encourage applications from everybody, regardless of race, sex, ethnicity, religion, nationality, sexual orientation, age, disability, gender identity, marital status/civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, as well as being open to flexible working practices.

The University holds a silver Athena Swan award in recognition of our good employment practices for the advancement of gender equality. The University is also a member of the Euraxess initiative supporting researchers in Europe.

Requisition ID: 25201