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About the Role

As an Assistant within the Faculty’s professional services team, you will support the day-to-day delivery of Business Services by providing proactive, flexible, and professional operational, administrative, and secretarial support that allows colleagues to do their jobs effectively.  

Although you will predominantly support Business Services, you will be expected to work flexibly and collaboratively with colleagues across the Faculty.  Typically, you will work within one of the following four areas, although we are specifically recruiting for an Assistant in SO (School Operations): 

• School Operations (SO) – supporting day-to-day school operations and providing secretarial and administrative support to members of the School leadership team and wider academic community. 
• Nations Support (NS) – supporting day-to-day operations and administrative support for the academic communities based in Ireland, Scotland, and Wales. 
• Leadership Support (LS) – supporting the PAs in the provision of secretarial and administrative support to members of the School and Faculty leadership team.  
• Facilities and Health and Safety Operations (FHSO) – supporting the Operations & Compliance Managers in all aspects of facilities and H&S management. 

You will also support the identification, dissemination, and implementation of good practice as part a commitment to continuous improvement and the development of operational capabilities.

Key Responsibilities

Operations and Finance 

Providing operational, administrative and secretarial support, working in conjunction with other members of the team and colleagues across the Faculty and wider University. Activities could include but are not limited to: 

Core Responsibilities (all roles): 

• Acting as a first point of contact and handling general enquiries from academics, colleagues (within the Faculty and across Central Professional Services Departments), external organisations and partners etc. using initiative to respond or refer on accordingly. 
• Supporting day-to-day School and Faculty operations linked to Health and Safety, HR, Finance, IT and facilities, and information compliance, research and teaching.   
• Assisting with the maintenance of systems and processes. 
• Supporting the organisation and delivery of meetings, events, and conferences. 
• Updating website, SharePoint, Teams sites content and email distribution lists. 
• Raising purchase requisitions, booking travel, maintaining records of expenditure, logging future commitments, and contributing to quarterly forecasts.   

Specialist responsibilities: 

• Providing secretarial and administrative support to members of the School and Faculty Leadership Teams including diary management, dealing with general correspondence, responding to telephone and e-mail enquiries, and maintaining and updating electronic filing systems. (SO, LS) 
• Providing core administrative support (including travel bookings) for the academic community (including PhD students). (SO) 
• Supporting Health and Safety, operations and compliance activity across the faculty including completing Level 1 DSE assessments and acting as a local Fire Warden; equipment procurement; management of new starter administration including the online H&S induction. (FHSO) 
• Day-to-day administration that supports the allocation and reallocation of Associate Lecturer FTE in the Nations including supporting the allocation of academic tutors to students and arrangements for local cover when required. (NS) 
• Acting as a first point of contact and handling general enquiries from students including VOICE queries. (NS)
• Supporting specific compliance related to the devolved nations. (NS)

People Management

• Prioritising own work, having an awareness of the workload of the team, and supporting colleagues when necessary.

Strategy, Planning, Policy and Governance

• Servicing committees/meetings, including arranging rooms (bookings and AV equipment, catering, drafting agendas, circulating papers and taking notes etc.) 

Project Management

• Assisting with the administration of all aspects of projects including supporting project initiation, set up and reporting processes, and assisting with day-to-day requests from project teams. 

Wider Influence

• Working collaboratively with others in the team and making an active contribution to the wider work of the Faculty including contributing to networks and communities that support the identification, dissemination, and adoption of good practice and solving common issues and problems. 
• Advising on routine enquiries and providing guidance to colleagues on policy and processes. 

Undertaking other duties as agreed with your line manager 

About You

Essential

• Proficient in communicating effectively and concisely with a high standard of written English grammar and also Mathematics commensurate with the role e.g. able to undertake basic calculations.
• A commitment to reflection and personal/professional development.
• Good communication and interpersonal skills with the ability to build trust, establish constructive relationships, and work collaboratively and effectively in a team. 
• Effective organisational skills with the ability to remain flexible, adaptable, and responsive and to use initiative, work independently, and solve problems in a pro-active manner. 
• Ability to deal with sensitive and confidential information, work accurately, and to manage and manipulate data appropriately. 
• Proficient in the use of IT and willing to develop existing skills and learning about relevant IT systems. 
• An understanding of and a commitment to the University’s mission and Values in Action. 

Support with your application

If you have any questions, or need support or adjustments relating to your application, the recruitment process, or the role, please contact us on 01908 541111 or email careers@open.ac.uk quoting the advert reference number.

What's in it for you?

At The Open University, we offer a range of benefits to recognise and reward great work, alongside policies and flexible working that contribute towards a great work life balance. Get all the details of what benefits we offer by visiting our Staff Benefits page (clicking this link will open a new window).

Flexible working

We are open to discussions about flexible working. Whether it’s a job share, part time, compressed hours or another working arrangement. Please reach out to us to discuss what works best for you.

Whilst the successful candiate can work from home/remotely for the majority of the time, there will be a requirement to attend the Milton Keynes office as and when required. We estimate this to be every other Tuesday.

Next steps in the Recruitment process

Interviews are likely to be held online in the week commencing 1st December 2025.

Early closing date notification

We may close this job advert earlier than the published closing date where a satisfactory number of applications are received. We would therefore encourage early applications.

How to apply

To apply for this role please submit the following documents:

• CV
• Supporting statement of up to 750 words, providing evience of how you meet the essential criteria for the role.

You can view your progress and application communications when you are logged into our recruitment system.  Please check your spam/junk folders if you do not receive associated email updates.