Student Casual - Sustainability Education Project Assistant - Educational Development Team - Library

University of Birmingham; Birmingham; On-site; GBP 40,000 - 60,000; Full time

Job description

Job Description

Position Details:

School or Department: Educational Development Team

Location: University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham UK

Grade/Band: Grade 6

Hourly rate: £16.69 per hour plus holiday entitlement

Casual contract from: 19/05/2025 - 27/06/2025

Advert closing date: Tuesday 22nd April 2025, 23:59pm

Number of positions available: 1

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.

Background

We are committed to integrate sustainability and climate awareness in all that we do, including embedding it into our teaching and learning strategy. This is essential to equip students with the knowledge and skills needed to address global challenges and create a more sustainable future.

This priority area is supported by the role of Academic Director of Sustainability Education (Professor Julia Myatt) who is working closely with the Educational Development Team to support the professional development of staff focused on teaching, learning and assessment. The overall aim of this project is to develop practical and meaningful ways to support staff to embed both discipline-specific and interdisciplinary sustainability education into the curriculum. Specifically, we aim to:

1. Develop a community of practice to share good practice.
2. Develop resources and a bank of examples of good practice to support and educate staff.
3. Develop teaching materials for staff to use to embed sustainability itself into their teaching and learning programmes.

Role Summary

Working with the Project Leads, the role holder will mainly be focused on aim two (supporting the development of resources and a bank of examples of good practice and support and educate staff to embed sustainability into different disciplinary areas). Much of the work may be carried out remotely, but the role will require some in-person meetings and focus groups for the duration of the project.

Main Duties

• Desk-based research related to sustainability in Higher Education teaching, learning and assessment practice.
• Running focus groups and interviews with stakeholders about their sustainability in education practice and/or experience in a wide range of disciplines.
• Analysis and packaging of research outcomes in a variety of outputs (from text to multimedia).

Person Specification

Mandatory:

• University of Birmingham registered student/researcher from any College (UG, PGT, PGR)
• A demonstrable interest and knowledge of the themes of sustainability (i.e. across the three pillars: environmental, social and economical).
• The ability to gather, interpret, analyse and present information on the basis of the information gathered and in a variety of formats (traditionally, graphically and multimedia).
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills.
• Must have the confidence and ability to proactively talk to and communicate with a wide range of people in person, email and Zoom/Teams (eg. meetings/interviews/focus groups)
• Must have the ability to work on own initiative but also be able to demonstrate a good team working ethos.
• Must have good organisational and time management skills.
• Must be available to work between 19th May until 27th June 2025. Anticipated hours are 15 hours per week. To be arranged at a mutually convenient time, academic timetable permitting and in agreement with the team.

Desirable:

• Knowledge of qualitative / quantitative research methods

Additional Information

Please upload an up-to-date CV as part of your application and ensure you respond to the following three questions when they appear in the application.

1. What difference do you think this initiative can make to students, staff, and wider society?
2. What would you bring to the role, considering in particular, your knowledge/passion for sustainability?
3. Provide us with at least one specific example of how/where you have communicated a complex idea to a mixed audience using mediums such as infographics, diagrams, posters, videos, Thinglinks, webpages (you can include an example/link if relevant/available) etc

Please also make sure to include details of your availability in the required period.

For any informal queries, please contact Danielle Hinton ([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.