....to apply for uni admin jobs when universities seem to be in trouble?

[mumofoneofeach75]

Hello, hoping for some advice from current university staff. Posting here for traffic. I asked for advice a few months ago - I'm a secondary school teacher (core subject) desperately looking for alternatives (especially after the GCSE & A Level results....). Uni admin was recommended by some posters, but Brexit was also mentioned as a worry. Things seem to be much worse since I posted-falling numbers of both UK and international students, potential losses of EU funding, closing departments and "restructuring". I read an article in the Guardian yesterday about huge numbers of EU academic staff looking to leave UK institutions because of immigration worries and potentially significant loss of research funding. Are things looking as dire within the universities as it seems from the media? I'm really desperate and where I live, a uni job looks to be my best chance of getting out of teaching. Any information will be very gratefully received.

@Howyoualldoworkme Would me being a teacher with a longer resignation date work against me potentially being short listed?

That's certainly good to hear!

Place marking. Another disenchanted secondary school teacher here, searching for ideas. I've never worked in admin though...

Not necessarily but you must be upfront about it. We had someone who couldn't start for three months but they were the right person so the work was covered. I'm admin in the Library but classed the same as other support staff.
Is it in your contract to give a longer notice? Even senior academics only have to give two months.
The majority of academics do all their own admin now. I know, because my recently retired lecturer husband had to. Or rather I did because I'm better at it!

We actually have a few ex teachers working with us. It's nice and quiet in the summer too

I'm in course admin in a uni and have been for a few years. There are uncertainties up ahead and our faculty is going through a restructure (not involving my department, thankfully) but nobody is going to be jobless at the end of it.

Yes, working with some academics can be a challenge but on the whole I love my job! Decent salaries for the work involved and I enjoy what I do.

The last resignation date is May 31st. So I thought I would start looking and applying from the beginning of May-there were several vacancies advertised this year during May. However, if successful, I would only be able to start around the 20th July or so.

Where I work, support staff have a 4 week notice period, but higher grade administrative staff have a 3 month notice period, so whether a longer notice period is a problem depends on the role. I wouldn't think you needing to have a month and a half, particularly in the summer, would be an insurmountable problem.

That sounds fine to me, we like to have staff in place and trained by September.

@ManInTheMoonMarigold thanks - that's reassuring. I think I would only meet requirements for a support admin role, so I'll try to make sure I can complete my online courses so my admin skills are all up to date. wondering if I could somehow get some sort of volunteer work during the school holidays to help my application as I have no actual work experience of HE - I'll have to look into it.

@Howyoualldoworkme thank you - that sounds great - the resignation date issue really put me off applying this year. I really regret not trying now.

If any of your local universities have unitemps or similar, you might be able to pick up some short-term work experience through them. It can also be a good route into permanent roles.

You've just missed the chance of helping out during clearing, that can really give you an insight to what's going on!

@Howyoualldoworkme of course clearing! I'm such an idiot - it didn't even occur to me I could look for volunteer opportunities!!!

@ ManInTheMoonMarigold yes, among my millions of job alert emails I have lots from unitemps - only I wouldn't be able to ask for a reference from my work as it would "sound the alarm" and make them aware I was trying to leave.......