IRDR administrator

Reference number 1278227

Background

The UCL Institute for Risk and Disaster Reduction (IRDR) is a new cross-UCL Institute, which aims to lead research, knowledge exchange and advanced teaching in the area of risk and disaster reduction (RDR). By providing a focus for UCL’s RDR activities, with its breadth of disciplinary emphasis, promotion of novel multidisciplinary research and translation into practice, the Institute aims to assume a role of leadership in RDR both in the UK and internationally. The Institute is hosted in the Faculty of Mathematics and Physical Sciences, but operates across all UCL’s faculties, spanning earth and space sciences, mathematics and statistics, engineering and development planning, population health, anthropology, ethics and laws, and contributes to UCL’s Grand Challenges.

IRDR administrator

We seek to appoint an Administrator with immediate effect, who will play a key role in developing the Institute. The Administrator will support the Deputy Director in developing and managing the new Institute. The successful candidate will be highly motivated, have strong inter-personal and organisational skills and experience in administration and website maintenance. It is a 50% parttime
position.

Responsibilities

IRDR Events:

- Organising IRDR public events, including booking rooms and refreshments and arranging and checking presentation materials and facilities.
- Organising IRDR Annual Conference, courses and forums.
- Setting up and managing conference and event registration systems.
- Managing and recruiting volunteer and student assistants .
- Organising and disseminating publicity.
- Liaising with collaborators and stakeholders, internationally.

IRDR Website:

- Website administration, development and maintenance.
- Advertising IRDR events.
- Maintenance of IRDR mailing lists.
- Compiling and sending out the IRDR newsletter.

Finance:

- Manage IRDR finances: monitoring IRDR accounts; arranging payment of invoices; liaising with Finance Division.
- Organising IRDR procurement (e.g. computers, AV equipment, teaching materials, conference materials).
- Use of UCL Financial Information System (FIS) and pFACT costing tool.

Student Admin:

- Maintain student records and extensive use of Portico system.
- First contact with departments for teaching/student related matters.
- Provide advice to students on module registration, enrolment, progress, marks, grades.
- Responsible handling of confidential student matters.
- Sensitive handling of students with learning difficulties.
- Secretary to the IRDR’s Boards of Examiners.
- Organising publicity and advertising for PG programmes.

Human Resources:

- Maintenance of HR records of IRDR staff.

General:

- First point of contact for general enquiries to the IRDR;
- Arranging all IRDR meetings, including the Executive and Advisory Boards: booking dates and rooms, organising refreshments where appropriate, taking minutes and following up actions.
- As duties and responsibilities change, the job description will be reviewed and amended in consultation with the postholder.
- The postholder will carry out any other duties as are within the scope, spirit and purpose of the job as requested by the Deputy Director or Director.
- The postholder will actively follow UCL policies including Equal Opportunities and Race Equality policies.
- The postholder will maintain an awareness and observation of Fire and Health & Safety regulations.

Qualifications:

Essential
- Maths and English GCSE or equivalent at Grade C.
Preferred
- Educated to degree level, or have equivalent qualifications or experience.

Skills and Abilities:

Essential
- High level of literacy with proven ability to take accurate minutes of meetings, produce management level information; and to draft correspondence and reports.
- High level of numeracy.
- Strong IT skills with the ability to use a range of database, spreadsheet, e-mail and word processing software.
- Web design and development skills including html literacy.
- Ability to communicate effectively, both orally and in writing, with a wide range of people.
- Excellent organizational and time management skills, with the ability to analyse existing processes to improve efficiency.
Preferred
- Proven ability to balance a budget.

Experience:

Essential
- Experience of working in Higher Education, non-governmental organisation or similar organisation in a service environment.
- Experience of organising and managing events and preparation of publicity material.
- Experience of developing and updating web-pages.
- Knowledge and experience of using databases and financial information systems.
Preferred
- Knowledge and experience of tools for research costing, teaching databases and financial information systems in university/ higher education environments

Aptitudes:

Essential
- Ability to communicate clearly, both orally and in writing, with students and academic and support staff at all levels.
- Flexibility to respond to changing priorities in a busy environment, taking a proactive approach.
- Ability to work independently and also as part of a team, recognising when advice/ input needs to be sought.
- Willingness to develop new skills as required.
- Excellent people skills and the ability to build good relationships with colleagues and external partners.
- A high level of accuracy and keen attention to detail.
- Ability to work calmly under pressure in order to meet tight deadlines.
- Ability to work to high levels of confidentiality.