Beds SU is committed to diversity and inclusion amongst its staff, reflecting the communities it serves. We are an equal opportunities employer and welcome applications from all suitably qualified person regardless of their race, sex, disability, religion/belief, sexual orientation, or age.
We are happy to discuss any reasonable adjustments individuals may require, including – but not limited to – alternate working hours
Purpose
Beds SU is the representative body of an ambitious, aspirational and diverse student body. We are led by hard-working, elected students who – together - reflect the experiences and hopes of our amazing membership.
The purpose of this role is to deliver high-quality, efficient and responsive administration and coordination across Beds SU, while supporting a management-led project established to review and improve the union’s enquiry management system.
Based in the Resources department, this role will work across all Beds SU departments providing much needed administrative support to the CEO and senior team and our elected Sabbatical Officers.
The workload is varied and will require an enthusiastic, dedicated and flexible approach; for the right candidate it will bring the opportunity to learn a wide range of organisational and communications skills. This post includes project planning and delivery and service delivery alongside administrative support.
The post-holder will ensure enquiries are managed effectively day-to-day and that systems, processes and service standards are embedded to support long-term sustainability.
Key Skills
The successful candidate must be able to take accurate minutes, which will require them to have a high standard of English and they must be computer literate. They’ll be required to maximise the use of common online and AI tools to operate efficiently in post.
Experience in a HE or membership led organisation is not essential but a willingness to assimilate to Beds SU’s culture and develop knowledge in the role is essential.
Managing confidential information securely and with tact and sensitivity is a must.
Duties and Responsibilities
1. Coordination and administrative support
2. SU enquiry handling
3. Office administration
4. Governance assistance
5. Project support: enquiry system review and implementation
1. Coordination and administrative support
· Provide personal administration support to the CEO and elected Student Campaigns Leads, incl. diary management and scheduling, managing emails.
· Schedule and coordinate internal and external meetings across SU functions, committees and stakeholder groups.
· Prepare and distribute meeting papers, record/produce minutes and actions and monitor completion.
· Liaise with Beds SU staff, Student Campaigns Leads, Student Champions, University contacts and trustees.
· Develop and share internal communications as directed or when necessary across the SU team.
· Support planning, briefings and outputs for University and SU committee participation.
· Monitor key deadlines, including governance cycles, reporting requirements and planning schedules.
· Provide general administrative assistance, including formatting documentation and supporting organisation-wide coordination needs.
· Support the social opportunities programme during busy periods such as Welcome week.
· Administer the Fresher’s Fayre incorporating planning and liaison between stakeholders the events and organisation and delivery of the event.
2. SU enquiry handling
· Operate the central SU enquiries inbox (presently, help@bedssu.co.uk), triaging queries using service-level standards and effective judgement in responding to enquiries in the most effective way for the students’ purposes/needs and in representing the Students’ Union.
· Administer third party/external queries as appropriate and specifically handle marketing and promotions enquiries received by the SU in accordance with internal policy and directives and engagement with relevant colleagues.
· Respond directly, refer or investigate among colleagues using templates or tailored responses, incl. the creation of additional email templates.
· Provide administrative support to help Student Campaigns Leads and Champions respond to queries.
· Proactively flag service issues and respond to or escalate issues/concerns.
· Facilitate a feedback loop among SU teams to evaluate the effectiveness of enquiry-handling workflows and templates.
· Assist with continuity of service during planned absences or staff shortages.
· Maintain professional, careful and compliant standards, demonstrating confidentiality, data protection and safeguarding awareness and compliance.
· Wherever reasonable, support Sabbatical Officers to respond to student enquiries and support these roles to be helpful and visible to students (e.g. providing them with template responses to student enquiries).
3. Office administration
· Coordinate travel, accommodation and catering bookings.
· Manage procurement and maintenance of stationery, supplies and equipment.
· Maintain operational systems (e.g. shared resources and storage/ intranet maintenance, calendars, event registers, comms platform access etc.).
· Undertake monitoring duties in compliance with health and safety.
· Provide cross-team support for events, social activities and core admin needs.
· Promote sustainable, ethical and inclusive delivery in all operations.
4. Governance assistance
· Coordinate Board and subcommittee meetings, including scheduling, attendance, minute-taking and circulate information and communications as necessary to the charity’s Trustees.
· Prepare reports and collate information for reports and papers as directed.
· Assist with organisational compliance needs as directed (e.g. health & safety, data protection, benchmarking or impact measurement).
· Maintain the trustee portal and facilitate engagement of trustees and teams.
· Support induction of new staff and elected student representatives.
· Provide administrative assistance to periodic HR exercises such as performance review processes, consultations, policy/handbook reviews, inductions and/or recruitment processes (e.g. logistics, monitoring).
5. Project: enquiry system review and implementation
· Provide logistical and administrative support to management during their review and replacement of the enquiry-handling system.
· Conduct structured online searches to identify potential suppliers, products or tools related to the enquiry-handling project, compiling key information (e.g. cost, usability, features) to support management review and decision-making.
· Support targeted information gathering on secondary tools such as booking systems or AI triage solutions, as directed, by summarising publicly available data to assist management in exploring supplementary options.
· Assist with the documentation and set-up of workflows, templates and triage tools as directed by management.
· Support the drafting and formatting of service level standards and quality assurance checklists, based on guidance from management.
· Support the production and sharing of materials to help staff engage with the enquiry system in line with agreed service level expectations, and assist with basic feedback or usage data collection when requested.
· Support the circulation of project updates and assist in sharing information with staff and students, including service availability and access expectations, as directed by management.
· Assist in gathering reports, practices, needs and feedback from students and staff to help management consider user experience during the project.
Personal Development
As well as learning how Beds SU operates, in order to fully support our Sabbatical Team the postholder will also be required to develop institutional knowledge of the University’s committees and meeting schedules.
Beds SU is keen to ensure the continuing development of our staff. We will provide ongoing training as required to ensure skills remain up to date and enhance career progression opportunities. Roleholders are to identify development needs, aspirations and opportunities, which will be discussed on a case-by-case basis.
Our Green Impact
All employees at Beds SU are expected to support ongoing and positive sustainability practices across internal and external-facing duties. This includes, but is not limited to, ethical sourcing, resource and waste management, highlighting potential environmental impacts of planned activities and reducing the overall carbon footprint of the SU via carbon-conscious operations more generally.
Job Types: Full-time, Part-time, Fixed term contract
Contract length: 6 months
Pay: £25,581.00-£28,100.00 per year
Expected hours: 30 per week
Benefits:
- Life insurance
- Sick pay
Schedule:
- Monday to Friday
Work Location: In person
Application deadline: 07/07/2025
Expected start date: 01/08/2025