Student Casual – Student Voice & Curriculum Review Research Assistant – Sport Exercise and Rehabilitation Sciences – Grade 6 – 907069

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

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Job context

The Research Assistant will work under the Student Voice Lead in SportExR. The Lead will oversee the project and make sure the outcomes are embedded in the wider curriculum review.

Job summary

This role will support student voice and co-creation in the 202526 curriculum review for the School of Sport Exercise and Rehabilitation Sciences. The Research Assistant will design and run student voice conversations. They will analyse the findings co-develop and co-create practical resources. These will include a student voice workshop and an education toolkit for academics. The aim is to ensure that student perspectives shape curriculum innovation.

Main duties

• Student Voice Student Team: Support the recruitment of students and to deliver training to them as peer-to-peer facilitators and co-creators as partners with staff in the curriculum review process.

• Student Voice Conversations: Plan facilitate and evaluate focus groups using creative methods (e.g. design thinking participatory Lego Serious Play) and surveys to capture student perspectives from SPECS and SEHS students past and present.

• Student Voice Workshop: Plan co-create and facilitate a workshop for SportExR Academics and the Student Voice Team bring the student voice to the heart of the curriculum review co-creating key work items and capture outputs.

• Data Analysis: Collect and analyse qualitative and quantitative data; draft reports summaries and recommendations for curriculum review committees and workshops.

• Toolkit Development: Create an education toolkit for academics that showcases methods case studies and guidance on embedding student voice and co-creation in curriculum design.

• Engagement: Build relationships with a diverse range of students alumni academic and professional services staff; act as a point of contact ensuring inclusive and representative engagement.

• Project Support: Help organising events workshops and support dissemination through presentations infographics and practice-sharing resources.

Required knowledge skills qualifications & experience

• In order to qualify for this role you should be a Masters or PhD student within either SPEC (Sport PE and Coaching Science) or SEHS (Sport Exercise and Health Sciences).

• Understanding of quantitative qualitative and participatory research.

• Strong facilitation skills able to create inclusive spaces for dialogue.

• Ability to analyse and present findings clearly and accessibly.

• Excellent communication organisation and stakeholder-engagement skills.

• Able to use MS 360 suit of products (Sway Teams MS Forms Co-pilot etc) Padlet Canvas and be willing to learn new skills for using Synthesia.

Further details

• Planning and organising:
  • The role is required to plan and organise an annual programme of events and activities for a specific student group within a school.
  • The nature of the role means that the role holder needs to be a self-starter and to use their initiative with the ability to plan and manage their workload effectively.
• Problem solving and decision making:

  • The role has a reasonable degree of freedom to shape the student voice programme within the overall strategy and direction of travel for a school. Some activities will arise from the School Curriculum Review Plan and others will emerge from the student voice or academic body. The role will need to be analytical and evaluative in interpreting requirements and then be creative and use their initiative to constantly improve and come up with new activities and offerings.

  • The Head of School can make decisions on whether activities go ahead. Role holders do not manage a budget so if they can deliver an activity or initiative without any spending then they are able to do so. If they require any funds they will need to seek approval and agree a budget.

  • There are some areas that relate to the student experience that are out of scope of what this role can influence or decide including teaching and areas of academic judgment corporate services activities and things impacting across the institution that are handled centrally e.g. timetabling considerations.

• Internal and external relationships this role is very much focused on collaboration and communication and as such has a wide range of stakeholders with which they work:

  • Academic relationships: the role needs to influence senior colleagues identifying collaborators and those that can help influence more widely as well as bring people with them and encourage the participation of academics in events and activities. The key stakeholders are:
    • Curriculum Review Team
    • Head of Education
    • Heads of Departments
    • Head of School
    • Other academics within the School or College
  • Professional Services: the role needs to co-ordinate with a range on professional services around a range of day-to-day activity (such as open days web page and e-learning updates etc). The main teams that this role interacts and co-ordinates with are:
    • Marketing
    • Careers service
    • Alumni service
    • Web team
    • Digital Education team
    • Student Welfare Officer
    • Programme Administrators

  • Students: students are a core stakeholder group and the role will need to engage and communicate extensively with their communications they will need to be a friendly and approachable contact as well as to encourage their participation in the programme of activities and collect their feedback and input. Key routes to this group are:

    • Student Ambassadors
    • Community Volunteers
    • Student groups and fora

For any informal queries please contact Holly Henderson ()

The University of Birmingham restricts all students to working up to 20 hours per week during term time for a maximum of 13 consecutive weeks. 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 checks will need to be completed prior to work commencing.

Regarding the use of AI in applications we review hundreds of applications and shortlist candidates based on their unique perspective motivations and potential.Cover letters generated through or edited by AI tools (e.g. ChatGPT or CoPilot) are easy to identify. They produce generic answers and will not score highly enough to progress. You may use AI tools for research but all written content in your application must be your own work. Authenticity and originality are key to standing out in this process.

Due to the high volume of applications we receive were unable to contact all applicants individually. You can check the progress of your application by logging into the Worklink jobs portal using the same email address you used to apply. If you havent heard back within six weeks of the closing date please assume your application has been unsuccessful.