Outreach Coordinator (Finance) - External Relations - 56191 - Grade 5

The University of Birmingham; United Kingdom; On-site; GBP 36,000; Part time

Job summary

A leading educational institution in the UK is seeking a dedicated individual to join their External Relations team. This role focuses on supporting the widening participation and outreach agenda through financial management and administrative duties. The ideal candidate will have strong organizational and communication skills, experience managing budgets, and a commitment to diversity. This permanent position offers a competitive salary and excellent benefits, including generous holiday and professional development opportunities.

Benefits

40 days paid holiday

Volunteering day

Occupational sick pay

Professional development opportunities

Qualifications

• Educated to A Level standard or equivalent qualification.
• Minimum grade C/4 in Mathematics and English at GCSE.
• Strong financial awareness with evidence of budgetary administration.
• Proficient IT skills, particularly with complex electronic diaries.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills.

Responsibilities

• Manage and reconcile budgets within the Outreach team.
• Coordinate and take minutes at departmental meetings.
• Provide administrative support for pre- and post-16 Outreach programs.
• Managing inboxes and dealing with complex inquiries.
• Organize events including venue bookings and liaising with speakers.

Skills

Organizational skills

Communication skills

Budget management

Interpersonal skills

Problem-solving

Education

A Level standard or equivalent

Tools

MS Office Suite (Excel, PowerPoint)

Enterprise resource planning package

Job description

Position Details

External Relations

Location: University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham UK

Full time starting salary is normally in the range £29,647 to £31,460, with potential progression once in post to £35,388

Grade 5

Part Time (0.8 FTE), Permanent

Closing date: 11th January 2026

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 are committed to helping the people who work here to develop through our sector‑leading Birmingham Professional programme which provides all professional services staff with development opportunities and the encouragement to reach their full potential. With almost 5,000 professional services jobs in a wide range of functions in Edgbaston and in our campus in Dubai, there are plenty of opportunities for you to be able to develop your career at the University.

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.

Supporting our people to achieve a healthy work/life balance is important both to our employees and to the success of the University and, depending on the role, we offer a variety of flexible working arrangements. We therefore welcome discussions on all forms of flexible working. In addition, you will receive a generous package of benefits including 40 days paid holiday a year, one paid day a year for volunteering, occupational sick pay, and a pension scheme. We also have three high quality subsidised day nurseries.

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‑arts 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

External Relations is comprised of nine teams which help drive delivery of the University’s strategic framework. External Relations communicates with Birmingham’s many different audiences in order to build purposeful relationships internally, locally, nationally, and globally. We enable those who wish to apply to study on undergraduate and postgraduate courses to make informed choices whilst ensuring our partnerships, profile and reputation reflects the success of the University and delivers impact. External Relations sits within the University’s Professional Services structure which provides outstanding support to our researchers, enables an exceptional educational experience for our students, and helps the University to grow its influence regionally, nationally, and globally.

The Undergraduate Recruitment and Marketing team and the Outreach team sit within External Relations and are responsible for the development, promotion and delivery of student recruitment and widening participation activities for the University within the UK. The team undertake a wide range of aspiration raising events and student recruitment activities (i.e. HE fairs, school and campus visits, open days and residential events) as well as undertaking a range of activities targeted at specific groups within the community as part of our commitment to widening participation.

The University of Birmingham has a commitment to widening participation; ensuring that young people from communities who are under‑represented in Higher Education are encouraged and supported to make informed choices regarding their future progression. This activity provides a ladder of engagement from Year 6 through to Year 13 and on to Higher Education.

Role Summary

This is an exciting role in a busy and fast‑paced team. This permanent post will play a key role in supporting the University’s widening participation and outreach agenda and, along with providing support for a broad range of administrative duties and outreach programmes, this role will also provide financial support for the team and be responsible for administering and monitoring the team’s accounts and budgets. As a senior administrator within the team, you will provide support for a broad range of administrative duties, some of which may be complex. You will use your excellent organisational skills and attention to detail to ensure the people you support are well prepared, and that the tasks you carry out are completed to a high quality in a timely manner.

Main Duties

• Be responsible for the administration, monitoring and reconciliation of budgets within the Outreach team. This will include:
  • processing payments, authorising expenditure, raising concerns where finances are not in line with the budget.
  • procuring goods and services through the University system.
  • completing monthly budget reconciliation returns and supporting quarterly outturns and forecasting.
  • reconciling corporate and purchasing cards held in the Outreach team.
• General office administration and project work as required i.e. coordinating and taking minutes at departmental meetings (Outreach and Student Recruitment & Outreach team meetings) and supporting the team in dealing with ad hoc requests from the ER Directorate.
• Provide administrative support for several pre- and post-16 Outreach programmes.
• Proactive inbox management, with confidence to make decisions on behalf of others where appropriate.
• Dealing with a wide range of more complex enquiries and correspondence independently or exercising judgement to redirect them to senior colleagues or other departments, within the University.
• Maintain high profile working relationships with key stakeholders, fielding enquiries and ensuring that appropriate information is disseminated to stakeholders as appropriate.
• Arranging UK travel on behalf of the team, including booking hotels, travel and organisation and planning of itineraries, ensuring best use of time and taking into account budgetary constraints.
• Organisation of events including booking a venue, sending invitations, arranging refreshments, liaising with speakers, manage bookings, co‑ordination of colleagues, advertising, collating feedback and reporting back.
• Collate, analyse and interpret data.This may include identifying and resolving issues with the data.
• Will manage some smaller projects on own initiative but will also carry out desk research and source data from internal and external sources in order to contribute to wider projects.
• Support the management, development and implementation of operational processes and systems.
• Working with Worklink to support the employment of student ambassadors and mentors.
• Supporting the DBS process and DBS checks.
• Supporting the wider recruitment team at Open Days.
• Supports equality and values diversity, moderates own behaviour to avoid unfair discriminatory impact or bias on others.

Person Specification

• Educated to A Level standard, or equivalent level 3 qualification such as a Level 3 NVQ, or level 3 national diploma or relevant experience evidencing the skills and ability to undertake the role.
• Minimum of grade C/4 in Mathematics and English at GCSE or equivalent level 2 qualification.
• Strong financial awareness and numeracy with demonstrable evidence of budgetary and financial administration.
• Highly proficient IT skills, in particular the ability to handle complex electronic diaries and emails, the wider MS Office suite of programmes including Excel and PowerPoint, and some experience of using an enterprise resource planning package. The post holder should also be confident and able to quickly learn new IT skills and software packages as required.
• Proven ability to plan and anticipate requirements, proactively planning own (and sometimes others’ workloads) to manage time effectively, progress tasks concurrently and work to deadlines.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills, including the ability to write for different audiences, and to required deadlines.
• Excellent interpersonal skills. The postholder must inspire confidence and command authority with a range of colleagues and provide excellent customer service at all times.
• A high degree of professionalism, tact, and diplomacy, and the ability to exercise discretion regarding the handling and management of sensitive information/issues.
• A high degree of initiative, personal judgement, resourcefulness, flexibility, and a self‑motivating approach.
• Ability to work effectively in a large, complex organisation, and to develop a good understanding of how the University and higher education institutions work.
• Ability to understand policy and procedures and how to apply these.
• Understands the importance of equality and diversity in the workplace.
• Ability to identify and respond to equality and diversity issues in line with relevant policies and procedures.

Desirable:

• An understanding of widening participation in the field of education
• Experience of working with students
• Knowledge and understanding of the UK Education system
• Experience of working within the HE/Education sector

Dimensions

This role will require the exercise of personal initiative within and beyond the department. May manage a team or budgets.

Planning and organising

The role is required to work independently on daily, weekly and monthly tasks but also on projects with medium‑longer‑term horizons without daily supervision. May manage other staffs’ workloads.

Problem solving and decision making

They will work with direction from management but with a significant degree of autonomy. They will deal with more complex queries and be expected to resolve any problems in their area of responsibility. They may also manage the workload of others or coach others to achieve results.

Internal and external relationships

This role will be liaising with internal colleagues and stakeholders, likely to be University‑wide and with external stakeholders.

Informal enquiries to Elizabeth Chandler, email: [e-mail]

View our staff values and behaviours here.

Use of AI in applications:We want to understand your genuine interest in the role and for the written elements of your application to accurately reflect your own communication style. Applications that rely too heavily on AI tools can appear generic and lack the detail we need to assess your skills and experience. Such applications will unlikely be progressed to interview.

We believe there is no such thing as a 'typical' member of University of Birmingham staff and that diversity in its many forms is a strength that underpins the exchange of ideas, innovation and debate at the heart of University life. We are committed to proactively addressing the barriers experienced by some groups in our community and are proud to hold Athena SWAN, Race Equality Charter and Disability Confident accreditations. We have an Equality Diversity and Inclusion Centre that focuses on continuously improving the University as a fair and inclusive place to work where everyone has the opportunity to succeed. We are also committed to sustainability, which is a key part of our strategy. You can find out more about our work to create a fairer university for everyone on our website.