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About the Role

As a Business Services 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: 

• 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 of a commitment to continuous improvement and the development of operational capabilities.

Please note that the Business Services Assistant role profile is a standardised profile used across several areas of the Faculty. This vacancy is specifically for the Leadership Support (LS) specialism. The successful candidate will join the Faculty Executive Office and provide high-quality PA, secretarial and administrative support to members of the Faculty Leadership Team, including the Associate Deans and the Director of Strategy, Planning and Resources. Key responsibilities will include diary management, handling correspondence and enquiries, meeting and event coordination, committee and meeting servicing, and supporting the smooth day-to-day operation of leadership activities across the Faculty. This is an excellent opportunity for someone who enjoys working in a professional, fast-paced environment and developing strong working relationships with colleagues across the Faculty and wider University.

Key Responsibilities

Operations & 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, 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.

About You

Essential:

• A high standard of written English grammar and mathematics commensurate with the role and 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 the ability to work in a manner which aligns with, the University’s mission and Values in Action. 

Desirable:

• Experience of providing high-quality administrative, PA, or secretarial support.
• Experience of managing diaries and coordinating in-person and online meetings, events or workshops involving multiple stakeholders.
• Experience of working in Higher Education.

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.

It is anticipated that a hybrid working pattern can be adopted for this role, where the successful candidate can work from home and the office. However, as this role is contractually aligned to our Milton Keynes office the successful candidate will be expected to attend campus every Wednesday. There will also be times when attendance is required on other days to support meetings, events and business needs, and the level of campus attendance may be subject to increase depending on operational needs. Candidates should therefore be able to travel to the Milton Keynes campus regularly and flexibly, including every Wednesday, and at other times as required when necessary and in response to business needs.

Next steps in the Recruitment process

We anticipate that face-to-face interviews for this role will be taking place onsite at our Milton Keynes campus on Thursday 12 November 2026 however this is subject to change.

Early closing date notification

While most roles will remain open until the advertised closing date, applications may be reviewed on an ongoing basis. In some cases, vacancies may close earlier if a sufficient number of suitable applications have been received and equality impacts have been appropriately considered. All roles will remain advertised for a minimum of one week before any early closure is implemented.

If you have started an application or were in the process of applying when the advert closed, we encourage you to get in touch. We are committed to understanding individual circumstances and can offer further support where needed, including reasonable adjustments for applicants with protected characteristics.

How to apply

To apply for this role please submit the following documents:

• CV
• A supporting statement of up to 1000 words. You should set out in your statement why you are interested in the role and provide examples of where your skills and experience meet the essential requirements for this role as detailed in the job description.

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.