Student Casual - Research Assistant - Psychology - Grade 6 - 906591

University of Birmingham; Birmingham; On-site; GBP 13,000; Part time

Job summary

The University of Birmingham seeks a part-time ASPbelong study team member to support mental health interventions in schools. This role involves working with young people, collecting data, and assisting teachers. Ideal candidates are postgraduate students with strong communication skills and teamwork abilities.

Qualifications

• Available for 15 hours per week over two days.
• Previous experience of working with young people.

Responsibilities

• Travelling to schools within Birmingham to transport intervention equipment.
• Supporting teachers and pupils to implement Lina during scheduled lessons.
• Collecting baseline and follow-up questionnaire data.

Skills

Communication

Teamwork

Education

Postgraduate student

Job description

Job Description

Position Details:

School or Department: Psychology

Location: University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham UK

Grade/Band: Grade 6

Hourly rate: £16.69 per hour plus holiday entitlement

Casual contract from: 01/09/2025 - 28/11/2025

Advert closing date: Wednesday 11th June 2025, 23:59pm

Number of positions available: 6

Please note that this vacancy may be taken down early depending on the number of applications received. We advise you to submit your application promptly.

Our offer to you

People are at the heart of what we are and do.

The University of Birmingham is proud to have been a part of the City of Birmingham and the wider region for over 100 years, and we are equally proud to be recognised as a leading global university. We want to attract talented people from across the city and beyond, support them to succeed, and celebrate their success.

We believe there is no such thing as a typical member of staff and that diversity is a source of strength that underpins the exchange of ideas, innovation, and debate. We warmly welcome people from all backgrounds and are committed to fostering an inclusive environment where diversity is at the heart of who and what we are, and how we work.

The University is situated in leafy Edgbaston and there are excellent transport links to our beautiful campus, including main bus routes and a train station on site. On campus we have a state-of-the-art sports centre with pool, shops, places to eat and drink, our own art gallery, museum and botanical gardens.

Find out more about the benefits of working for the University of Birmingham

Background

Lina is a digital mental health intervention format using smartphones to deliver real-world group psychotherapeutic interventions and create supportive classroom communities for young people. The app combines immersive story-telling, contemporary technology and evidence-based psychology, delivering augmented reality-facilitated, face-to-face collaborative experiences which boost mental health by fostering a greater sense of belonging and connectedness. It is a digital solution for mental health promotion, fostering healthy social behaviour, cost-free to schools, easy to implement and compatible with smartphones.

The project involves three separate, yet related trials, that will test the effectiveness of a novel augmented social play programme, Lina, in routine school lessons for adolescents aged 12 to 13. The trials will take place in Portugal, Czechia and the United Kingdom in the 2025/26 school year concurrently.

Role Summary

The ASPbelong study director is Dr. Kate Woodcock. The post-holders will work with the ASPbelong team based in the School of Psychology at UoB.

On a day-to-day basis, the post-holders will work alongside the ASPbelong UK implementation team, composed of PhD students and Research Fellows. The ASPbelong UK implementation team will create a shift schedule based upon post-holders' availability.

Main Duties

• Travelling to schools within Birmingham - Transporting intervention equipment (phones, routers, etc.) safely from the university to school classrooms. All travel expenses incurred will be reimbursed.
• Lina implementation - Supporting teachers and pupils to do Lina during scheduled lessons. Lina is very self-directed, so post-holders will not be expected to deliver sessions themselves, but will be required to follow and implement the trial protocol, for which training will be provided
• Maintaining positive working relationships with school staff, pupils, and other stakeholders
• Data collection - Collecting baseline and follow-up questionnaire data from pupils, observational data, and brief questionnaire data from class teachers

Person Specification

• Postgraduate student (part-time Masters or full/part-time PhD)
• Previous experience of working with young people (essential), in an education/school context (desirable)
• Strong verbal communication skills and enthusiastic mindset (essential)
• Reliable and strong ability to work within a team (essential)
• Available for 15 hours per week over two days (Monday to Friday) in September, October (excluding October half term), and November (essential)
• Some knowledge and/or willingness to learn about scientific mental health interventions and randomised control trials (desirable)

For informal enquiries about the role, please contact Alison and Tamanna at [e-mail]

View our staff values and behaviours here

Valuing excellence, sustaining investment

We value diversity and inclusion at the University of Birmingham and welcome applications from all sections of the community and are open to discussions around all forms of flexible working.

The University of Birmingham restricts all students to working up to 20 hours per week during term time. If your application is successful and your course does not follow the usual academic term timetable (e.g. PGT, PGR or PhD student), you and your supervisor must formally agree vacation periods if this role exceeds 20 hours per week. In addition to this, please be aware if you are an International student you will be required to apply to the Registry for the appropriate Authorised Absence.

You are only eligible to apply to this role if you are a current University of Birmingham student. If you are not a University of Birmingham student your application will not be considered.

To work you will need to carry out a right to work check. These checks will need to be completed prior to work commencing.