Appointment of a School Administrative Assistant

Appointment of a School Administrative Assistant

The schoolThe university is committed to transforming the lives and experiences of people and their environments through research that drives positive change and economic and social benefits. Based in the College of Life, Health and Physical Sciences, The School of Environment and Technology is focussed on producing applied, multi-disciplinary research that informs policy, practice and benefits the student experience.

Based in the Cockcroft Building on the Moulsecoomb site, there are 49.25 academic, 6.1 research, 7.9 technical and 12.2 administrative staff within the school covering a wide range of activities within the two divisions of Geography & Geology and the Built Environment & Civil Engineering.

Members of staff are active in their professional fields, acting as external examiners, validation panel members and HEFCE assessors.

Research

The School specialises in multi/interdisciplinary applied research which is grouped around 5 broad themes:-

• Applied geosciences
• Ecology,landscape and pollution management
• Society, space and environment
• Ground, water and structural engineering
• Sustainable construction and environmental planning

Staff within each of these themes also contribute to the Aquatic Research Centre which is an interdisciplinary centre focusing on resolving key issues associated with marine and freshwater systems in both the natural and built environment.

In the 2014 REF 40% of the staff from the School were submitted via 4 Units of Assessment ( B7 – Earth Systems & Environmental Sciences -12.25 fte, C22 – Social Work and Social Policy – 2.0 fte; C26 – Sport & Exercise Sciences, Leisure and Tourism – 2.0 fte, D34 – Art & Design: History, practice and theory – 3.0 fte) and the following quality profile was generated:-

4* = 11.2% 3* = 50.9% 2* = 34.0% 1* = 3.6% U/C = 0.3%

The School attracts around £1 million of external funding each year from UK Research Councils (EPSRC, NERC, AHRC), the European Union, local and national government (DEFRA, Environment Agency, SDNPA) and industry. In many cases staff within the School are leading large multi-partner European projects and they play a key role in the peer review process (e.g.RCUK Review College) and in academic societies hosting national and international conferences.

The school provides an excellent environment to support the development of early career researchers with pump priming funds being made available to develop research activities. The School also supports in excess of 60 postgraduate research students.

Courses

The school offers a wide range of research led courses to over 1200 students at Masters and Undergraduate Degree level which cover the subject areas of architectural technology, building surveying, construction management, civil engineering, environmental sciences, geography, geology and environmental management.

The undergraduate programmes are modular in structure and split into two semesters of 15 weeks’ duration. All of the courses make use of fieldwork and industrial placements and these are integrated into the teaching programme. Many of the courses are accredited by professional bodies (ICE, RICS, IEMA, Geol Soc) and have key transferable skills integrated into the programme. As a consequence the graduating students have an excellent record in securing appropriate employment.

Staff within the school also have close links with industry, the local community and the relevant professions, with highly qualified staff offering consultancy, short courses and CPD opportunities to the South East region.

Consultancy Opportunities

Staff may also work on consultancy activities, which may be undertaken in consultation with their Head of School.

Facilities

The school is strongly supported by the university and as a consequence has seen significant investment (£8.3 million) in new laboratories and capital equipment over the last five years. Key facilities include:

• Geochemical suite (XRD, XRF, XPS, AAS, ICP-OES, ICP-MS)
• Geology Laboratory
• Environmental Sciences Laboratory
• Public Health Laboratory
• Research Laboratory
• Hydraulics laboratory with 6 flumes
• Experimental River basin
• Heavy Structures Laboratory
• Geotechnicial laboratory including a centrifuge
• Concrete laboratory
• Drawing Studio
• Computer Laboratories including Autocad and GIS
• Surveying Equipment (Total Stations, dGPS)
• Field based monitoring equipment including a 4 wheel drive vehicle and coring equipment
• Instrumented monitoring sites for hydrogeology, wetlands and estuarine environments.

The refurbishment of the Cockcroft Building (£29 million) has provided new offices, laboratories and social learning spaces as well as providing a building with a low carbon footprint.

Support Staff

The academic activities are supported by a range of administrative and technical staff. The laboratories and computer systems are supported by highly qualified technical instructors who support teaching and research activities. Similarly the teaching and research administrative activities are supported by the School Office together with two Student Support Tutors. In addition the school can call upon support from the Centre for Collaboration and Partnership which focuses on working with industry (KTPs) and student placements.

The Built Environment and Civil Engineering Division

The mission of the Built Environment and Civil Engineering Division is to be a centre of excellence for teaching and research in construction with particular emphasis on the interaction between the society and the natural environment. The division also has a strong professional focus which guides and informs both teaching and research activities.

The Division consists of 24.4academic staff who are supported by 4 dedicated technical staff and it is also able to draw upon the wider technical support available in the School and the School Administrative team.

Research

Research within the division is focused around two themes:-

Sustainable Construction and Environmental Planning with particular expertise in building & energy modelling; life-cycle assessment; information & communication systems for built environment applications; access to food in the urban environment; coastal planning and regeneration; evaluation of infrastructure procurement & contracts in emerging economies; construction methods, processes and technologies; and sustainable refurbishment and modernisation. The staff have attracted grants from the EPSRC, DEFRA and the EU as well as being involved in a number of Knowledge Transfer Partnerships with companies in the South-east.

Ground, Water and Structural Engineering with particular interests in geotechnics (Soil-structure interaction, foundation engineering, soil and rock mechanics, laboratory study for rock stability in permafrost areas); hydraulics (wave processes and interactions, cohesive and non-cohesive sediment transport on beaches, tidal and density currents, modelling of waves via Finite Elements and Boundary Elements methods, physical modelling of sediment movement and waves); materials (cyclic behaviour of plane and confined concrete, hysteretic behaviour of materials, usage of natural fibres for concrete and soil reinforcement); and structures (identifying mechanical parameters and presence of damage via non-destructive tests, seismic action modelling , proposing and testing new mechanical jointing systems for timber, glued-laminated timber and engineered wood products and numerical modelling of timber structures, analysis of structures under stochastic loads, redesign of structures under seismic action, validation of numerical models via dynamic testing of small-scale prototypes of structures). The group has attracted funding from the EPSRC, EU, DEFRA, and from industry.

Courses

The University of Brighton has a long history of providing professional, higher education courses directly related to the construction industry. The courses achieved high scores in the HEFCE Teaching Quality Assessment and are accredited by a variety of professional bodies including the RICS, ICE, IStructE, APM and the CIOB. The courses have also attracted excellent National Student Survey, with overall student satisfaction placing of 85.4%, the third highest within Built Environment courses. The Division supports around 530 students, on the following courses:

• MSc Civil Engineering
• MSc Construction Management
• MSc Highway Engineering
• MSc Project Management for Construction
• MSc Town Planning
• BSc (Hons) Architectural Technology
• BSc (Hons) Building Surveying
• MEng/BEng (Hons) Civil Engineering
• MEng/BEng (Hons) Civil with Environmental Engineering
• MEng/BEng (Hons) Civil Engineering with Construction Management
• BSc (Hons) Construction Management
• BSc (Hons) Project Management for Construction

Members of staff are active in their professional groups including Chartered Institute of Building, Institution of Civil Engineers, Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, Chartered Institute of Building Services Engineers and Royal Town Planning Institute. They also undertake external examining; validation panel membership and HEFCE assessment. Staff in this division, play an active role in local community activities and organisations.

The Civil Engineering courses have been developed around a common first year which greater depth in the core disciplines being developed at Level 5. Option modules are introduced at Level 6 and for those students who undertake the flagship MEng course there is further emphasis upon leadership and construction management skills. The Civil Engineering courses are distinctive in terms of their inclusion of construction management and environmental material (e.g. Water quality, engineering geology) which is strongly supported by staff from other areas of the School.

The built environment undergraduate courses share a common first year and this allows the students to get a better understanding of the subject material before they start to specialise at honours level. This approach has allowed us to move to a position where we have an array of semi-independent, inter-linked modules from which it is possible to offer new options and ensure that the students develop key skills appropriate to their degree but can still select from a broad range of options. A particular focus for these courses is an emphasis upon Sustainable Development in Construction and the broader issues associated with development and regeneration.

Graduate employment is very high and the courses now attract considerable involvement from regional and national employers as evidenced via our Industrial Liaison Panel.

Postgraduate teaching is offered via the MSc programmes in both the built environment and civil engineering areas. Recruitment is primarily full-time though a few part-time students enrich the courses through current knowledge and experience. The MSc’s are custom designed courses where students bring both skills and experiences from their previous professional and other activities and integrate them with the academic content provided by the study programmes.

The Division of Geography and Geology

Staff in the Division of Geography and Geology integrate research and teaching across the full spectrum of geography, earth and environmental sciences. There is also growing expertise in archaeology.

Research

The 32.3 staff within the Division are all research active and 60% were submitted in the 2014 REF. The research is applied in nature and it has been judged to have outstanding impact with considerable societal reach. Our staffing policy was viewed positively in terms of its commitment to equality and diversity and the specialist support it provides for early career staff. There are currently 35 MPhil/PhD students directly supervised by staff within the Division.

More details on research themes and successes are provided on the School website and within the University of Brighton publication Transforming Research

Courses

The Division operates nine highly successful integrated undergraduate degree programmes which collectively recruit around 170 students in each academic year. These include honours degrees in BA Geography, BSc Earth & Ocean Science, BSc Environmental Sciences, BSc Geography, BSc Geography with Archaeology, BSc Geography with Geoinformatics, BSc Geology and BSc Physical Geography and Geology. Each degree is managed by a Course Leader, with academic staff contributing to the modules which comprise the individual degree programmes.

The Division also runs four Masters programmes which attract a total of 30-45 full-time students per year: MSc Environmental Assessment & Management, MSc Environmental Geology, MSc GIS & Environmental Management and MSc Water & Environmental Management.

Full details of all of these courses are available at

Job sharing The University of Brighton welcomes job sharers. Job sharing is a way of working where two people share one full-time job, dividing the work, responsibilities, pay, holidays and other benefits between them proportionate to the hours each works, thereby increasing access to a wide range of jobs on a part-time basis.

Potential job sharers do not have to apply with a partner. However, if a post is to be operated as a job share there must be at least two suitable applicants who wish to share the job.

A job share appointment will only be made if it has been demonstrated that both shortlisted applicants can do the job to the required standards and within a working pattern of hours that is agreeable to all parties. If one applicant is unsuitable, neither can be appointed unless an alternative potential job sharer has been shortlisted.

When applying as a job sharer please indicate this on your application form. Please also indicate on the additional information tab whether you are applying with a job share partner and the name of that person. It would also be useful if you could indicate whether you would be interested in the post on a full-time basis if no suitable partner can be found. If you have indicated that you would be willing to take up the position on a full-time basis than the normal recruitment procedure will be followed.

If you are interested in appointment on a job share basis, please contact Human Resources for a copy of the university's policy, procedure and guidelines for job sharing. Alternatively staff in Human Resources will be happy to answer any queries you may have.

The jobDetails of the job are described in the attached job description.

The salarySalaries are paid monthly in arrears through the BACS System directly into the bank or building society account of each member of staff.

Salary payments for staff that work less than 52 weeks per year are spread evenly over twelve months of the year so that they continue to receive payment during the times they are not contracted to work. This means that, when they leave the employment of the university, they may have received either an over or underpayment for that year, according to the date of leaving in relation to the anniversary of the start date. In such cases, the adjustment would be made in the final salary payment, as a deduction or lump sum payment, as applicable.

Working weekThe hours of work for this post are 37 hours per week, excluding meal breaks (these are unpaid), 52 weeks per year and hours of attendance will be from 8.30am to 5.00pm on Mondays to Thursdays and from 8.30am to 4.30pm on Fridays.

Holiday For each full-year worked you are entitled to annual leavedependent on your grade of pay (see table below). The entitlement increases after five years’ continuous service, pro rata for part-time staff. Annual leave entitlement for part-time staff and staff on shift patterns will be calculated in hours. New members of staff are entitled to annual leave proportionate to their completed calendar months of service. In addition to the eight Bank and Public Holidays each year, discretionary days are granted in late December to allow the university to remain closed between Christmas and the New Year.

Terms & conditionsIn determining terms and conditions of employment, the university has regard to recommendations made through the appropriate national negotiating framework. These terms and conditions of service can be varied by local agreements reached through the university’s local negotiating framework which comprises a Joint Negotiating Committee supported by two Common Interest Groups. These groups bring together representatives of the university and its recognised trade unions, which are:

•UCUUniversity and Colleges Union

•UNISON

Strategic planDetails of our Strategic Plan can be found at:

InterviewsInterviews are likely to take place on 08 July 2016.