Student Casual – Research Assistant SportExR Student Voice & Curriculum Review – Life and Environmental Sciences – Grade 6 – 106472

Position Details:

• School or Department: Sport Exercise and Rehabilitation Sciences
• Location: University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham UK
• Grade/Band: Grade 6
• Hourly rate: £16.92 per hour plus holiday entitlement
• Casual contract from: 20/10/2025 – 19/01/2026
• Advert closing date:13/10/2025, 12:00pm
• Number of positions available: 2

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

People are at the heart of what we are and do.

The University of Birmingham is proud to have been a part of the City of Birmingham and the wider region for over 100 years, and we are equally proud to be recognised as a leading global university.  We want to attract talented people from across the city and beyond, support them to succeed, and celebrate their success.

We believe there is no such thing as a typical member of staff and that diversity is a source of strength that underpins the exchange of ideas, innovation, and debate.  We warmly welcome people from all backgrounds and are committed to fostering an inclusive environment where diversity is at the heart of who and what we are, and how we work.

The University is situated in leafy Edgbaston and there are excellent transport links to our beautiful campus, including main bus routes and a train station on site.  On campus we have a state-of-the-art sports centre with pool, shops, places to eat and drink, our own art gallery, museum and botanical gardens.

Find out more about the benefits of working for the University of Birmingham

Role Summary

This role will support student voice and co-creation in the 2025–26 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. 

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.

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.
• Be a current or recent graduate of SPECS or SEHS programmes.
• 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.
• Project Support: Help organising events, workshops, and support dissemination through presentations, infographics, and practice-sharing resources.
• Be a current or recent graduate of SPECS or SEHS programmes.
• 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.

Person Specification

• 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.

Additional Information

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 students. In 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 (h.henderson.2@bham.ac.uk)

View our staff values and behaviours here

Valuing excellence, sustaining investment

We value diversity and inclusion at the University of Birmingham and welcome applications from all sections of the community and are open to discussions around all forms of flexible working.

The University of Birmingham restricts all students to working up to 20 hours per week during term time. 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 check. These checks will need to be completed prior to work commencing.