Job Description
The Careers Group, University of London is seeking to appoint a Deputy Head for UCL Careers. The successful candidate will be responsible for the strategic planning and operational delivery of careers education within the Bartlett Faculty of the Built Environment; Faculty of Engineering Sciences; Faculty of Mathematical & Physical Sciences, as well as overall responsibility for the careers provision at UCL East (UCL’s new campus on the London Olympic Park). This will include liaising with senior academic colleagues and other staff / students within the faculties that make up the School and leading and managing a team of careers professionals (currently 13 staff, 7 of whom are direct reports). This is an exciting time to join UCL Careers as UCL is starting an ambitious project to bring teaching, learning and assessment together with employability over the next 5 years.
The successful candidate will also be a member of the senior management team of UCL Careers, supporting the Director to further develop the overall service offering. This will include taking responsibility for institutional-wide careers initiatives.
The successful applicant will have excellent people management and organisational skills with a proven track record of strategic thinking and project delivery. They will have strong communication skills and the ability to work with a diverse range of stakeholders.
About UCL
UCL is one of the world’s leading universities and consistently appears in the top 20 in global league tables. Indeed, UCL was ranked 8th in the world in the latest (2023) QS World Rankings. UCL was also rated as 2nd in the country in the latest (2021) Research Excellence Framework (REF) for research power, with 93% of the research being graded as world leading or internationally excellent. UCL is also 3rd in the UK in the latest QS Employability rankings (2022).
At its establishment in 1826, UCL was radical and responsive to the needs of society, the first university in England to admit students regardless of race, religion or gender. This ethos – that excellence should go hand-in-hand with enriching society – continues today. Staff and former students have included 30 Nobel prize-winners. It is a truly international community: more than one-third of its 48,000 student body come from 150 countries and nearly one-third of staff are from outside the UK. 51% of UCL’s student population are postgraduates (38% PGT; 13% PGR). In addition, UCL employs around 5,000 early career researchers.
An overview of The Careers Group
The Careers Group of the University of London is an expertise-led, collaborative membership organisation, set up to serve predominantly, but not exclusively, the member institutions of the University of London. The Group comprises the careers services of:
• City, University London
• Goldsmiths, University of London
• King’s College London
• St Mary’s University
• SOAS
• University College London
• The University of London Careers Service
The University of London Careers Service supports both distance and flexible learning students, and those at small specialist colleges in the University’s federation including the Courtauld, Royal Veterinary College, St George’s Medical School, the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and the School of Advanced Study. It also provides careers provision to the Institute of Cancer Research, the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama and the London Arts & Humanities Partnership.
All The Careers Group institutional services are closely aligned to the strategies for education, employability, enterprise and student experience of the institutions that they serve. This means that staff will partner with academics, professional services colleagues and students on creation and delivery of key initiatives that support the future outcomes of students. The group has over 250 staff and serves a population well in excess of 150,000 students, researchers and graduates.
The Group HQ is at Stewart House and contains the Director's office and a small central team, which supports the institutional services by coordinating recruitment and resourcing, providing professional development, supporting research and evidence-based practice, overseeing the creation and curation of shared resources, and undertaking special projects on behalf of member services and the Group as a whole. Stewart House is also the base for the University of London Careers Service.
In October 2020, The Careers Group began implementation of a new action plan for Equality, Diversity & Inclusion, shaped by external expertise in inclusion, social justice and anti-racism, and led by the Director of The Careers Group, Dr Kate Daubney. This plan takes both a collective and individual approach to reviewing learning and practice in equality and diversity, striving to improve our understanding of the differences in and the impacts of lived experience both across our staff community and among our students and other partners. We are seeking to address structural inequality and obstacles to progression in our organisation through a range of actions including: establishing an internal Advisory Panel of staff of diverse heritage to inform the Group’s strategic priorities; reviewing our manager progression processes, experiences and data; and embedding approaches to building and maintaining safe spaces for all.
From October 2022, The Careers Group will offer a unique new postgraduate online learning module: Strategic Approaches to Careers and Employability in Higher Education. This module will be offered as part of The University of London’s Postgraduate Certificate in Learning and Teaching in Higher Education. The module has been designed for global higher education colleagues with responsibility for or an interest in careers and employability strategy.
Further information
For more information on the role, please read the Job Description and Job Pack attached.
For an informal conversation about the role please contact the Head of UCL Careers, Karen Barnard on k.barnard@ucl.ac.uk.
To be considered for this opportunity, please submit your application by clicking ‘Apply for job’ at the bottom of this page before the closing date at midnight on Sunday 6 November 2022.
Interviews will take place on Friday 18 November 2022 in person at UCL Careers offices in Central London.
If shortlisted, please notify us on tcg.hr@london.ac.uk before booking an interview if you are likely to incur travel expenses as part of your involvement in our selection process, as we will only cover these if agreed in advance.
We look forward to receiving your application.
The University of London is committed to promoting a diverse and inclusive working environment where we can all be ourselves and succeed. We particularly encourage applications from members of Black, Asian, and Minority Ethnic communities as this group is currently under-represented in senior levels within the University. All appointments will be made on merit, based on the criteria identified in the job description.
Pursuing excellence in education and equal opportunities.