Job Description

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Reporting to: Head of Operations of SoSS

Duration of Post: Part-time (17.5 hours per week), Open-Ended

Working Hours: Negotiated office hours (one hour for lunch)

Grade/Salary Range: Grade 4 (\xc2\xa322,681 - \xc2\xa324,533)

Annual leave: 28 days plus 9-10 Buildings Closed Days, Pro-rata

Sickness benefits: First 3 months = 2 weeks full pay and then 2 weeks half pay. 3 months to 1 year = 2 months full pay and then 2 months half pay.

Start Date: ASAP

About the role

The School of Social Sciences is looking to appoint an Administration Assistant and the role holder will be responsible for providing high-quality day-to-day joint administrative and secretarial support for the School\'s accreditation and international projects. The role holder will be a member of the wider support team dedicated to the School of Social Sciences and will work alongside colleagues fulfilling similar duties.

The successful applicant will have a proven track record in the delivery of administrative services to senior staff and will be relied upon to provide an excellent administrative service to a wide range of stakeholders.

The ability to initiate and complete tasks to the highest standard is essential. Excellent organisational, interpersonal and communication skills are also vital to this role, as are strong IT skills (particularly with Microsoft Office Packages). Applicants should also have experience of working in a customer-oriented role. The role will suit a self-motivated individual who is able to work flexibly as a member of a team within a challenging and dynamic environment.

The work will be varied and the post holder will be expected to be able to deliver a fair, friendly and timely service to all our students and staff. All the support services within the School are committed to delivering a customer focused service to students, staff and visitors. To achieve this commitment all support staff need to be adaptable, flexible and prepared to support other teams and individuals within the School.

Key Duties and Responsibilities

To provide high quality proactive administrative support to the SoSS International Office, administration and operation of the offices, to support their objectives.

Main Duties and Responsibilities

• Responsible for the efficient and effective day to day administration in support of accreditation and international projects, ensuring the provision of a timely and accurate service; building and maintaining effective working relationships between the key contacts across the University and wider community in Scotland, as well as with administrative counterparts overseas.
• Proactive and flexible prioritisation of tasks to respond to short-notice / ad hoc requests for involvement in internal and external activities and events, effectively consulting with senior staff.
• Act as the main point of contact for all initial enquiries, exercising initiative and judgement to resolve and filter queries to colleagues as appropriate. Providing information on the key activities as required.
• Responsible for setting up, implementing, maintaining and continuously improving the administrative systems to ensure compliance with University policy and procedures, and to ensure day-to-day liaison with relevant internal and external stakeholders.
• Provide a full range of secretarial support to the School\'s Director of Accreditation, Director of International, and Director of International Student Engagement. This includes: fielding calls, liaising with external contacts, diary management, handling travel arrangements, and processing financial transactions.
• Responsible for providing support to the relevant governance structures including working groups by arranging meetings and taking minutes, room-booking, clerking, preparing agendas, and using initiative to follow-up on outstanding actions.
• Develop and maintain the relevant sections of the website, social media accounts and the SharePoint intranet sites, ensuring the content is accurate and up to date; assist with public promotion of Accreditation and International development in the wider School and the University.
• Liaise with a wide range of internal and external suppliers and make sure all purchase requirements are met within deadline.
• Any other duties that may reasonably be assigned in order to support the smooth running of the administrative/secretarial functions of the School.
• Responsible for data collection both internally and externally and setting up and maintaining repositories of data sets and relevant documentation.

Please note that this job description is not exhaustive, and the role holder may be required to undertake other relevant duties commensurate with the grading of the post. Activities may be subject to amendment over time as the role develops and/or priorities and requirements evolve.

Essential And Desirable Criteria

Essential * HNC, VQ3, Higher Grades or equivalent experience.

• English native speaker, Excellent communication (both in writing and verbally) and interpersonal skills using tact and diplomacy with a wide range of people across cultures.
• Excellent organisational and planning skills, and an ability to prioritise work within strict timescales.
• Excellent IT skills with the ability to use Microsoft office - specifically Word, Power Point, Excel, Outlook, Publisher.
• Demonstrable experience of preparing content for websites and ability to regularly maintain and update the website, social media, and intranet sites.
• Demonstrable experience of the set-up, promotion and management of physical and online meetings / events.
• Willingness to work at flexible hours as job requires.
• Administrative experience with qualifications or evidence of progression and development gained through relevant work experience.
• Experience in with finance systems (such as Oracle ERP) to raise purchase orders, process payments and run monthly reports as required.

Desirable * Previous administrative experience in an academic or research environment.

• Accuracy in all areas of work, with high level attention to detail.
• Proven initiative and judgement to resolve problems independently.

Please find a list of competencies here:

About the School

The School of Social Sciences at Heriot-Watt University comprises of Edinburgh Business School, the Department of Languages and Intercultural Studies and the Department of Psychology.

We specialise in industry-focused degree programmes which embrace a truly international outlook. Our degrees are taught by experienced professionals and highly regarded academics and we are proud to produce high-calibre, career-ready graduates and offer a full range of degree choices at undergraduate and postgraduate level.

Social Sciences is the largest of five academic schools at Heriot-Watt University and we provide teaching and research across our core disciplines:

• The Edinburgh Business School:

• Accountancy, Economics, & Finance
• Management
• Marketing & Operations
• Languages and Intercultural Studies
• Psychology

The School of Social Sciences and is looking to appoint an Administrative Assistant (0.5 FTE) to provide joint support to the Director of Accreditation, Director of Internationalisation, and Director of International Student Engagement. The role is designed to support the acquisition and retention of a range of professional accreditations, international partnership work, data analysis and development of the student experience for international students in SoSS.

How to Apply

Applications can be submitted up to midnight (UK time) on 18th of September 2023.

For an informal discussion on this post please contact - Dr. Darren Cunningham, Head of Operations ( )

At Heriot Watt we are passionate about our values and look to them to connect our people globally and to help us collaborate and celebrate our success through working together. Our research programmes can deliver real world impact which is achieved through the diversity of our international community and the recognition of creative talent that connects our global team.

Our flourishing community will give you the freedom to challenge and to bring your enterprising mind and to help our partners with solutions that can be applied now and in the future. Join us and Heriot Watt will provide you with a platform to thrive and work in a way that also helps you live your life in balance with well-being and inclusiveness at the heart of our global community.

Heriot-Watt University is committed to securing equality of opportunity in employment and to the creation of an environment in which individuals are selected, trained, promoted, appraised and otherwise treated on the sole basis of their relevant merits and abilities. Equality and diversity are all about maximising potential and creating a culture of inclusion for all.

Heriot-Watt University values diversity across our University community and welcomes applications from all sectors of society, particularly from underrepresented groups. For more information, please see our website and also our award-winning work in Disability Inclusive Science Careers .

We welcome and will consider flexible working patterns e.g. part-time working and job share options.

Use our total rewards calculator: to see the value of benefits provided by Heriot-Watt University.

This role does not meet the minimum requirements set by UKVI to enable sponsorship of migrant workers. Therefore we cannot progress applications from candidates who require sponsorship to work in the UK. For further information on this please visit the UK Visas and Immigration website:

Heriot-Watt Values

With a history dating back to 1821, Heriot-Watt University has established a reputation for world-class teaching and practical, leading-edge research, which has made us one of the top UK universities for business and industry.

We\'re a vibrant, forward-looking university, well known for the quality of our degrees with employers actively seeking out our graduates.

Heriot-Watt is also Scotland\'s most international university with an unsurpassed international in-country presence. We deliver degree programmes to 11,800 students in 150 countries around the world, have a campus in Dubai and Malaysia and boast the largest international student cohort in Scotland.

At Heriot-Watt we\'ve created an environment that nurtures innovation and leadership - where our researchers, staff and students can realise their potential and develop their ambitions.

We\'re proud of our collegiate atmosphere and integrated teaching and research approach which has helped to build a community of committed academics and highly motivated students. Our focus on careers delivers results and we\'ve an excellent reputation for graduate employability.

We have campuses in Edinburgh, the Borders, Orkney and Dubai and Malaysia where we aim to provide stimulating, supportive environments conducive to effective learning and research, and where staff and students can excel.

At Heriot-Watt, we have an established set of values that help us to nurture innovation and leadership, and show our commitment to continuous improvement and development in all our activities.

Our values describe our deeply held beliefs and our community spirit. They characterise not only how we are as a higher education institution but also frame how we want to be.

Our values are: * Inspire

• Collaborate
• Belong
• Celebrate

As a learning, living and working institution, we use our values as the building blocks of how we go about doing our work and how we conduct ourselves as part of Heriot-WattUniversity. They represent what binds us together as a University community and help us to become the best at what we do.

It\'s key that all our staff feel part of our achievements, and our values provide your link to our success.

For full details on our University please view our website,

Heriot-Watt University is a charity registered in Scotland (SC000278).

Heriot-Watt University