Position Details
Birmingham Law School
Discipline: Arts and Law
University of Birmingham, Dubai campus
Salary: Competitive
Grade 9
No. of positions: 1
Full time
Location: Dubai, UAE
Closing date: 27th April 2025
UK and International travel will be required for this post
University of Birmingham Dubai
Having established ourselves in Dubai International Academic City in 2018 we have now moved to our new state-of-the-art campus which opened in Sept 2021. These posts represent an excellent opportunity to join an ambitious World Top 100 University as we continue to grow our long-term strategic mission in Dubai, the UAE and the wider region. Our campus reflects the very best of Birmingham through our presence in Dubai.
Role Summary
Contribute at a senior level on a sustained basis to the whole range of administration and teaching leadership. In addition, you will be expected to contribute to academic citizenship, likely to be demonstrated through generous, mutually respectful and supportive working relationships with all staff and students.
Teaching will include: (a) development and leadership of major teaching programmes or equivalent, such as the new Bachelor of Commercial Law programme; and (b) enhancement of the student experience or employability, that are of manifest benefit to the College and the University. It is expected that you will demonstrate a significant contribution to the advancement of teaching (policy, practice, standards) of the subject, provide leadership in teaching and learning that is innovative to the subject area or institution, with a significant contribution to the debate nationally about teaching. You will be expected to teach a range of undergraduate modules across the breadth of foundational legal education, as well as some specialist modules.
In addition to the teaching elements of the role, you will perform the role of Head of Department for the Law School in Dubai. This will include leadership and management activity with University wide involvement – for example through sustained high value impact knowledge transfer, enterprise, business engagement, public engagement or similar activities, and also being the lead contact for reporting back to the main campus in Birmingham and working with the Dean and senior leadership team of Birmingham Law School as well as the College Director for Global Engagement.
This role will be based at the University’s campus in Dubai, and is not available under a flying faculty arrangement.
You will receive a competitive package and play a key role in our ambitious University’s expansion as we enhance our international reputation and global footprint.
Main Duties
Education
You will contribute across the range of teaching and learning activities:
- making a significant contribution to the pedagogical knowledge base of the subject that advances teaching through the enhancement of practice, the development of teaching resources and/or through practice-based research;
- leading on the management and the development of approaches to teaching and learning, including designing innovative approaches and supporting colleagues to use them in the subject area or institution;
- leading on curriculum design at module and programme level to ensure it is contemporary, inclusive, engaging and academically challenging;
- actively engaging students in curriculum design;
- making an impactful, high quality contribution to debates about education policy, methods and practices through internal and external publications, subject societies and conference activity;
- developing an external profile evidenced through engaging in external quality assurance activities related to teaching, eg. external examining and engaging with/supporting education in other institutions;
- where appropriate, playing an important and sustained role in the recruitment and admission of students;
- co-supervising doctoral students to completion;
- leading the development of teaching, learning and assessment policies and strategies;
- acting as an education mentor to colleagues in the School/Department/College or more widely;
- leading the development of new and appropriate approaches to learning and teaching;
- leading sustained high value impact in knowledge transfer and enterprise (including business engagement, public engagement) that enhances the student experience and/or or employability, and is of manifest benefit to learning and teaching in the College and the University;
- undertaking own teaching, which will include teaching and examining courses at a range of levels, planning and reviewing own teaching approaches, developing programme proposals, supervision, marking and examining. You will ensure that your teaching practice is informed by discipline based research, through participating in the research culture of the School.
Management/administration
Lead activities in the Department/ School and represent the School on College/ University committees or working groups. In additional to leading the Department, this is likely to include some but not all of the responsibilities listed below.
- leading a successful international engagement at School or College level;
- developing and managing staff and resources in support of major teaching activities;
- making important contributions to the development of the Department’s (and the University) learning and teaching strategy;
- contributing significantly to the development and delivery of knowledge transfer, enterprise, business engagement and public engagement activities with sustained high value impact of manifest benefit to the College and the University in a teaching/education context;
- develops and implements a culture (including policies and procedures) that promotes Equality and values diversity and inclusion;
- leading, serving on and assisting the work of committees and task and finish groups beyond School/Department, e.g., Senate, Council, University Education or Research Committee etc.;
- leading external committees, e.g., those associated with public/professional bodies or delivery of activities for an external body at an appropriate level, e.g., chairing sub committees associated with large elements of work;
- leading/project managing a team to devise and implement a new and/or revised process (e.g. new programme or a recruitment drive);
- making a sustained contribution to widening participation, schools outreach and/or public understanding of the discipline;.
- contributing to administrative activities within the University (e.g. appeals panels, working groups).
Citizenship
- identifying wellbeing issues within the School/College/University and developing appropriate solutions to address these;
- taking collective ownership of challenges faced by the School or College and working with colleagues to develop solutions;
- mentoring and coaching of colleagues, particularly those in the early stages of their career.
Person Specification
- Normally, a higher Degree relevant to the discipline area (usually PhD) or equivalent qualifications. An LLM is essential for candidates without a PhD.
- Demonstrated excellence in Learning and Teaching, and Management and administration.
Learning and teaching requirements
An excellent teaching profile and performance in terms of both impact and quality, with experience of teaching English Law. Teaching quality demonstrated to be informed by an appropriate level of scholarship.
Evidence of success under the following headings.
- High national reputation for the development of teaching and learning excellence within the discipline
- Successful and sustained use of a range of appropriate teaching methods, and assessment strategies that promote high quality learning, including learning that is flexible, distinctive and current and stimulates learners’ natural curiosity
- Significant and sustained contribution to one or more of the following: strategic development of new programmes, approaches to learning, the development of learning resources
- High quality and sustained contributions to fostering excellence in teaching activities more widely, i.e. in the Department/School or College and/or externally
- Mentoring and expert advice which develops the skills of colleagues in teaching and in fostering learning
- Sustained high value impact knowledge transfer and enterprise that is of manifest benefit to the College and University.
Management and administration-related requirements
Demonstrated significant achievement in management and administration-related activities, which will include leadership of activities/initiatives. Evidence of success under the following headings.
- Successful and sustained performance in significant administrative/managerial role (s) (e.g. exams officer). Line Management experience highly desirable.
- Significant and sustained high quality innovative contributions to the management/administration of the Department/School/College or University.
- Successful and sustained contribution to the corporate life of the School/College/University, displaying willingness to contribute actively to committees, collaborative teaching and administrative tasks.
- Actively promotes equality and diversity to internal and external stakeholders.
- Able to use data to identify equality and diversity issues.
- Experience of developing interventions to address equality and diversity issues.
For informal enquiries, please contact Paul McConnell (Edgbaston Campus) p.j.mcconnell@bham.ac.uk
We believe there is no such thing as a 'typical' member of University of Birmingham staff and that diversity in its many forms is a strength that underpins the exchange of ideas, innovation and debate at the heart of University life. We are committed to proactively addressing the barriers experienced by some groups in our community and are proud to hold Athena SWAN, Race Equality Charter and Disability Confident accreditations. We have an Equality Diversity and Inclusion Centre that focuses on continuously improving the University as a fair and inclusive place to work where everyone has the opportunity to succeed. We are also committed to sustainability, which is a key part of our strategy. You can find out more about our work to create a fairer university for everyone on our website.
