Laurie Taylor – 1 December 2016

Time to be moving on?

Do you sometimes feel that your time may have run out at your present university?

Do you sometimes wonder if you might be happier and more successful pursuing a quite different career trajectory in another part of the higher education sector?

You do? Then this regular Poppletonian feature is just for you.

Each week we will provide a Q&A guide to an exciting and challenging university post that could be your first step on the pathway to a whole new life.

This week’s challenger post is currently on offer at Swansea University.

Q. What is the official job title?
A. Hub manager (Arts, Humanities and Law Hub).

Q. Sorry to be silly about this. But what does a hub do?
A. That’s an easy one. Here is Swansea University’s helpful summary:

“The primary focus of the college-based hub as a strategic gateway is to develop grant applications and customer relationship management with external partners. The proactive support will be achieved through a single portal for professional service with college staff and external stakeholders, resulting in more decisions made at source, reduced query bounce, closer working relationships and single team approach.”

Q. Sorry to be silly about this. But what, then, does a hub manager do?
A. That’s another easy one. Over once more to Swansea University:

“The post-holder will be responsible for the day-to-day leadership for the hub staff and translate the strategy and priorities of the colleges into tasks, allocating workload operation and transactional interface of college hubs through a partnership working approach to deliver practical, customer-focused solutions to the needs of the researcher, project managers and external stakeholders.”

Q. Anything more you need to tell me?
A. You should know that in the interests of improving accessibility, Swansea University provides a Welsh translation of the above post-holder responsibilities.

Source: 

Alamy/iStock montage

Adeste fideles

Festive season guidelines (Part 1)

Our Corporate Director of HR, Louise Bimpson, has asked us to remind all university staff of the mandatory guidelines relating to festive decorations.

Choice of decorative motifs
You are reminded that all Christmas decorations and decorative schemes should be strictly non-controversial. They should not therefore contain any images or representations that might offend the sensibilities of those who subscribe to particular belief systems and ideologies: eg, Jesus, Mary, God, Muhammad, Hare Krishna, Jehovah, The Christmas Fairy, Jack Frost, Richard Dawkins, Bambi, James Stewart.

Placement of wreaths
Although it is acknowledged that wreaths are a traditional form of Christmas decoration, they should be employed in moderation. Under no circumstances should they be nailed to the office doors of senior administrators without first obtaining written permission from the occupant.

Thank you for your understanding.

lolsoc@dircon.co.uk