JOB DESCRIPTION

Employment status and working hours

Permanent, full time. 

Full time hours at the University are 35 per week with the standard working pattern Monday to Friday from 09:00 to 17:00. 

Organisation structure

Education and Students, Executive Support.

Your line manager will be Wendy Finlay, Pro Vice-Chancellor, Education and Students.

Place of work flexibility

Your time will be split between the Horizons, Reading office and your home*. The exact split of days/hours is negotiable but must include a minimum of one to two working days each month in Horizons only on the core days (Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday). *Working from home is only possible if your environment is suitable.

High level summary of job role

As an Executive Assistant, you will be responsible for delivering effective and efficient support to a member of the Executive team: Pro Vice-Chancellor, Education and Students. You will take a proactive approach to co-ordinating and directly supporting the work of the Pro Vice-Chancellor and their interactions with other members of the Executive team, the Senior Leadership team and their wider departments. In addition, as a member of the Executive Support team, you will work with fellow Executive Assistants to coordinate the effective and efficient overall running of the Vice Chancellor’s Office.

Specific job role accountabilities and responsibilities

• Work closely with the Pro Vice-Chancellor to help deliver the University’s vision: to become the Centre of Excellence for Built Environment Education.
• Support the Pro Vice-Chancellor in all aspects of diary management, always ensuring a balanced and effective schedule, ensuring all elements of meeting management are handled seamlessly.
• Provide documentation and project support for strategies, policies and project planning led by the Pro Vice-Chancellor and their team managers. This includes research, drafting documents, as well as collating sources and resources related to document preparation and projects. You will also provide information to support decision-making relating to strategic developments for the University.
• Be responsible for advising the Pro Vice-Chancellor of impending internal and external work deadlines and assist with the preparation of materials for these (e.g. written reports, data reports, presentations).
• Track and progress actions to be completed by other managers in the Pro Vice-Chancellor’s departments, ensuring the highest quality standards and that deadlines are met.
• Organise and support meetings chaired by the Pro Vice-Chancellor, including preparing meeting packs, taking appropriate minutes and following up actions between meetings.
• Bring urgent matters to the attention of the Pro Vice-Chancellor, proposing possible solutions and making appropriate decisions on their behalf where possible.
• Liaise with key external stakeholders, following up with contacts after meetings and events on behalf of the Pro Vice-Chancellor.
• Deal proactively with incoming post and emails, including preparing draft responses and seeking information from relevant sources. Ensure deadlines are diarised and met.
• Ensure best practice file management, both manual and electronic.
• Manage purchase orders and invoices.
• Prepare, monitor and approve (or otherwise) expenses claims in ADP.
• Manage content on the University’s intranet SharePoint. Liaise with the marketing team regarding any updates required to the external website.
• Ghost write communications and assist in proofreading other University documentation on behalf of the Pro Vice-Chancellor.
• Support the organisation of Pro Vice-Chancellor events.
• Book UK and international travel for the Pro Vice-Chancellor.
• Handle information requests with tact and diplomacy. Manage confidential information with integrity.
• Undertake any other duties which fall within the scope of the post, and which may be required from time to time.

Other duties

• As Secretary to the Professorial Titles Committee, coordinate the end-to-end process for the annual conferment round. This will include: producing annual guidance; opening the call for applications; responding to queries from academic staff; managing applications; appointing and liaising with external reviewers; organising and servicing panels; writing minutes and communicating outcomes; and liaising with other teams (e.g. HR, Finance) for follow-up actions.
• Line manage the Academic Administrator in the School of the Built Environment, including: recruitment and selection; work allocation; professional development; performance management; conducting one-to-one meetings; and management of annual leave and sickness. Liaise closely with the Dean of School and Associate PVC – Academic throughout.

Other important features of the job role

Line management responsibilities: Yes, and the number of direct reports is one.

Budget responsibility: None.

In this role you will liaise with the following: Executive team, Senior Leadership team, Executive Support team, Academic team, HR and Payroll team, Finance team.

PERSON SPECIFICATION

E = Essential person requirement; D = Desirable person requirement

How the person requirement will be assessed:

A = Application; I = Interview; T = Test or other assessment

Please be aware that as part of onboarding processes, we will seek original documentary evidence of the relevant academic and/or professional qualifications which you include within your job application. This is all part of our comprehensive pre-employment screening which also includes checking your identity, right to work, criminal record history (basic disclosure), and three years employment history.

Qualifications and training

GCSE Maths and English language Grade C or 4 or above (E, A)

Further and Higher education level qualifications (D, A)

Secretarial/admin training or qualifications (D, A, I)

Previous experience

Providing direct support to an executive director or senior manager (E, A, I)

Sound knowledge of, or experience in, the higher education sector, or other regulated environment (E, A, I)

Creating project plans, supporting multiple projects, and seeing projects through to timely completion (E, A, I)

Reviewing papers, conducting research, and preparing reports for senior managers (E, A, I)

High level secretarial or administrative experience (E, A, I)

Line management experience (D, A, I)

Arranging UK and international travel (D, I)

Skills, knowledge, and aptitudes

Strong literacy and numeracy skills (E, A, I)

Business acumen; professional and confident approach (E, I)

Excellent verbal and written communication, including skills in report writing (E, A, I)

Digital skills confidence: We use MS Office which includes Teams, Outlook, Word, Excel, and PowerPoint and several other systems/technology (E, A, I)

Ability to build relationships at all levels with a range of internal and external stakeholders (E, A, I)

High level organisation, planning, prioritisation and time management skills (E, A, I)

Calm and methodical in pressured situations (E, I)

Ability to work flexibly, to switch tasks at short notice and to delegate tasks appropriately (E, I)

Minute taking (E, A, I)

High level analytical and problem-solving skills (D, I)

Research skills (D, I)

Other requirements or special requirements

Alignment to the University’s core values of Passion, Integrity, Excellence and Support; all employees are expected to demonstrate our values at work (E, I)

Commitment to delivering positive outcomes for our students; we want our students to be successful (E, I)

You must be prepared to undertake mandatory online training should you be appointed including Data Protection, Health and Safety, Safeguarding, Prevent, and EDI (E, I)

PAY AND BENEFITS

Salary: Salary up to £39,636 per annum.

Holiday: 26 days paid holiday (rising to 28 with service) plus paid bank/public holidays plus up to five paid closure days (typically between Christmas and New Year); all per holiday year Full Time Equivalent. Our holiday year runs from 1 August to 31 July. We also have a holiday buy and sell scheme in place. Sometimes the University does not need to close for five days per year and any balance (for example one day), can be used as a paid Wellbeing Day to take time out for your own physical or mental health.

Pension and life assurance: Pensions auto-enrolment to the People’s Pension which is a default salary sacrifice scheme. You may opt out of salary sacrifice but remain in the scheme, or you may choose to opt out altogether. We provide life assurance (death in service) cover as standard to all employees.

Family-friendly policies: Policies in place for all types of family-friendly statutory leave with enhanced pay available from day one of employment for some leave types. Access to Tax-Free Childcare (Government scheme).

Wellbeing: Full access to the Employee Assistance Programme as well as the Thrive Mental Wellbeing app. Several employees are trained Mental Health First Aiders and can support staff. We have a wellbeing policy and we focus on five pillars of wellbeing.

Sustainable travel: Cycle to Work and Electric Vehicle salary sacrifice schemes.

Parking: We have locked sheds for bicycles. For cars, for Horizons based roles, we may in the future be able to offer parking on site however you must not assume this will be possible. Every now and then we may have a spare parking space become available and you can ask to join the waiting list. The University is keen wherever possible, to encourage staff to commute as sustainably as possible.

Other health related benefits: Employer-funded Health Cash Plan (Simplyhealth) and voluntary dental insurance (Unum).

Other valuable benefits:

• Charity giving options available including one voluntary paid day, per annum.
• You will have access to Microsoft Office 365 applications for personal use.
• You will have access to range of lifestyle discounts and everyday savings.
• We offer learning platforms including LinkedIn learning.

On the Join the team page of our website, you will find the full list of employee benefits.

APPLICATIONS - THINGS TO CONSIDER

For an informal discussion about the role please contact Karen Weaver on 0118 467 2419 or email k.weaver@ube.ac.uk. For any other enquiries please contact HR on 0118 467 2454 / 2433 or email recruitment@ube.ac.uk

Did one of our employees recommend you? If you apply on the recommendation of an existing employee, please make sure to mention their name within your application.

We're passionate about sustainability and we have a five-year strategic plan: We expect job seekers to be curious about who we are and what we do. We point you towards a couple of resources about who we are and sustainability.

Closing date and next steps

We will receive applications until the advert closes on Wednesday 13 August 2025 at 17:00. We will not consider late applications. Our ATS does not screen applications, we humans do. Applications may be reviewed prior to the closing date and occasionally, you may be invited to interview ahead of the closing date.

Interview details

Dates for interview will be advised to you later in the process. We'll ask you to tell us about any dates you cannot make, up to 4 weeks from the closing date; this helps us to plan interviews should you be shortlisted, prior to contacting you.

Interviews are normally carried out over Microsoft Teams or Zoom. Depending on the job role and place of work, your interview may be at our Reading or London office. Please be prepared for a two-stage interview process, held on different dates. As part of the interview process, you will likely meet a member of the Senior Leadership Team.

Note for internal candidates

If you are an existing employee, we request you inform your current line manager of your intention to apply for this role.