Timetabling and Examinations Manager

The Timetabling and Examinations Manager is a new post focussed on recognising and responding to the broader context of examination delivery at a Russell Group University.The primary accountability of the role is the delivery of the University’s centrally-managed exams, in the context of the institution’s challenging aims and aspirations as set-out in its 2026 plans, however the appointee will also be deputy to the Assistant Director, taking responsibility across the sub-division in their absence.The Timetabling Team, having a differing structure to the examinations team, will not be directly line managed by the Timetabling and Examinations Manager, however the appointee will be required to lead development work across the subdivision, such as standardisation of process documentation, stakeholder engagement plans, and systems development.Working on large and complex projects, as well as internally-facing process improvement, the appointee will be both technically proficient and possess excellent interpersonal skills.The examinations function faces a number of exciting challenges and the appointee will be front and centre in responding to these:

1. Use of the new sports arena for student examinations is an operational challenge on a scale not faced before.Over 1000 students will be seated in the venue twice a day for three weeks, all while the Sports and Fitness Centre operates a near as normal service to customers.Venue management; invigilation; paper production, delivery and collection; cleaning and portering; ingress and egress; and much, much more all need to be reimagined for this new venue.
2. Management of and response to increasing student numbers across campus and on other campuses, and the increasing number of alternative forms of assessment is a key challenge facing this role. The appointee will be challenged to manage the operational response, but also to drive strategic discussions by, for example, presenting position papers to UEB. The appointee will therefore need to understand education, pedagogy, and assessment, and be able to talk authoritatively on the balance between these and operational efficiency.
3. An assessment cycle which uses both fully semesterised examinations (i.e. a winter and summer exam period), and single summer examination period.The appointee will be required to understand and work with differing assessment periods, and understand the impact of these on processes, systems, and people.

 

As head of a business-critical service the appointee will be expected to maintain positive and productive networks across the institution.The Exams Manager will liaise with Directors of Operations, Directors of Education, Pro-Vice-Chancellors and Deputy Pro-Vice-Chancellors, as well as maintaining strong, regular communication with Exams Officers and Operations Managers.

• Qualified to degree-level, or relevant equivalent experience that the functions of the role can be can be carried-out.
• Exceptional IT skills with evidence of successfully working with a number of complex database systems, and ability to understand and manipulate complex data structures in order to provide clear, concise reports.
• Demonstrable experience of leading delivery of a complex business-critical process across a large organisation, to tight deadlines, with a variety of stakeholders.
• A good understanding of internal and external factors affecting the higher education sector, in particular in a research-intensive civic institution such as the University of Birmingham.
• Exceptional leadership skills with the ability to motivate team members and engender positivity towards change.Experience of successfully leading teams through intermediary managers, and leading in a matrix management model.
• Experience of translating legislation and procedures into operation and sensitivity to the competing demands and viewpoints of stakeholders in this process.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, including excellent report-writing skills, with the ability to construct a logical, clear and concise argument, and express complex ideas coherently through a variety of media to different audiences.
• Outstanding interpersonal skills, demonstrating significant tact and diplomacy, the ability to inspire confidence and command authority, to be self-aware but tenacious, and to gain commitment to action or change from a variety of stakeholders (for example UEB) via well-developed influence and persuasion skills.
• Project management skills, including the ability to work under pressure and to deadlines, determine priorities for own work and that of others, and manage conflicting demands.
• A systematic, disciplined and analytical approach to problem solving.
• Proven ability to design and implement improvements to services, processes, or systems via large projects and continuous improvement.Able to monitor quality and performance and take corrective actions when necessary.
• Analytical, review and interpretation skills of both narrative and numerical data, demonstrating meticulous attention to detail.

 

For informal enquiries please contact Gillian Davis - g.j.davis@bham.ac.uk