RECRUITMENT BRIEF: UNIVERSITY OF BIRMINGHAM DIRECTOR OF SPORT June 2020 sportandfitness.bham.ac.uk CONTENTS 1. Introduction to the Director of Sport Role 2. The University of Birmingham 3. The City of Birmingham and the Commonwealth Games 4. Introduction to Campus Services 5. Sport at the University of Birmingham 6. Director of Sport Role Outline and Personal Specification 7. How to Apply INTRODUCTION TO THE DIRECTOR OF SPORT ROLE The University is seeking a suitably experienced professional with a passion and deep understanding of sport, fitness and wellbeing. It requires a blend of strategic and commercial acumen, academic empathy, and strategic people leadership capability, to create an environment in which the diverse team can thrive and excel. They will have the ability to successfully balance commercial operations with a high quality student/ customer experience. As one of the leading Russell Group universities for sport in the UK, the University of Birmingham has a proud and pioneering sporting heritage. It was the first University to introduce a sport-related degree in 1946, was instrumental in the creation of the English Sports Council in 1965, and has an academic School of Sport, Exercise and Rehabilitation Sciences currently ranked 6 in the world for its research. Birmingham was the first civic university, yet it also has a beautiful campus located in leafy green Edgbaston, just 3 miles from the City Centre. In recent years the University has invested £65 million in new sports facilities on campus, which has helped bring the 2022 Commonwealth Games to Birmingham. Alongside the quality of its sports facilities, the University’s investment in high quality student residences, a new 4-star Hotel & Conference Centre, and the planned £20m redevelopment of the University railway station means the University is an increasingly popular destination for major sporting events. This is an exciting part of the new Director’s portfolio, working in partnership with other Campus Services colleagues and a range of external partners. UoB Sport has a sector-leading team across a diverse range of disciplines including commercial club management, facility operations, health & fitness, performance sport, event management and outdoor education. It has an annual turnover approaching £8 million, 150 contracted staff, 11,000 Sport & Fitness Club members and 20,000 students engaged in sport. It has a long history of community engagement, including facility members, community clubs based at the University, over 1,000 children and 40 schools on the swim programme, and hosts community events such as the Birmingham School Games. UoB Sport also provides various support to academic teaching and research, in particular for the School of Sport, Exercise and Rehabilitation Sciences. Our collaborative work in India and on the embryonic Graduate School of Sport are two recent strategic projects. This is a senior and high profile position within the University. It is an opportunity to lead sport at the University of Birmingham into its next exciting phase, following the very significant recent investment in its sporting estate, and the hosting of the 2022 Commonwealth Games. The Director of Sport will play a pivotal role in leading the next stage of strategic development for sport within the University and representing its interests within the HE and sport sectors, nationally and internationally. THE UNIVERSITY OF BIRMINGHAM Established in 1900, the University of Birmingham has a pioneering history including being the country’s first civic University, the first Medical School and the first faculty of commerce. The University offered the first ever sport degree in 1946 and became the first University to open a secondary school in 2015. In 2018, we also opened a new campus in Dubai, the first Russell Group University to do so. Today, the University of Birmingham is ranked in the top 100 globally and in the top 20 of all domestic league tables. The quality of what we do at Birmingham is widely recognised. The University’s prolific research portfolio has produced 2 Prime Ministers and eleven Nobel Prize winners, including three in 2016 for Physics and Chemistry. The University’s School of Sport, Exercise and Rehabilitation Sciences is ranked 6 in the world for its research. The University of Birmingham is the largest of 5 higher education institutions in Birmingham with 23,000 undergraduates, 12,500 post-graduates and 8,000 staff. Our heritage as the original ‘redbrick’ is combined with one of the most compelling and ambitious agendas in Higher Education. Quite simply, at Birmingham we make things happen. The University is a founding member of the Russell Group (UK) and Universitas 21 (global) groups of research-intensive universities, and its alumni population exceeds 300,000, spread far and wide across the globe. The University’s campus spans over 250 acres, nestled in leafy green Edgbaston, just three miles from Birmingham city centre. The University is home to the Barber Institute of Fine Arts, housing works by Van Gough, Picasso and Monet; and the 100 metre high Joseph Chamberlain Clock Tower (affectionately known as ‘Old Joe’) a prominent landmark visible from many parts of the city. Academics and alumni of the University include British Prime Ministers Neville Chamberlain and Stanley Baldwin, and 11 Nobel laureates. We have been integral to some of the greatest scientific discoveries of recent times, such as the Higgs Boson and Gravitational Waves, and are pioneering new approaches to tackling some of the biggest global challenges facing society; from antibiotic resistance and maternal health to conflict resolution and access to education. Ranked in the top 100 universities globally and top 20 in all domestic league tables, the quality of what we do at Birmingham is widely recognised. Awarded Gold in the 2017 Teaching Excellence Framework and in the most recent Research Excellence Framework (REF2014), more than 80 per cent of our research was rated as internationally excellent or world-leading. In 2014, the Times and Sunday Times named us University of the Year in recognition of our bold, ambitious strategy and innovative approach to the challenges facing the sector. In 2016, they named us University of the Year for Graduate Employment – recognising our sector-leading employability programmes and outstanding graduate employment. A Convenor of Debate The University also plays an important role in shaping the national political agenda. We count two UK former Prime Ministers among our past Chancellors, and continue to welcome MPs, Ministers, and Prime Ministers to our campus. We regularly host political debates and events, bringing together people from across the political spectrum to debate the biggest issues. Our research helps to shape the national political agenda too. The ground-breaking Birmingham Policy Commissions bring together key figures from the public, private, and third sectors with our academics to generate new thinking on contemporary issues of global, national and civic concern. Commissions to date have included reports on the shape and nature of local public services in a ‘big society’, the future of nuclear energy in the UK, the security impact of drones, Healthy Ageing, Mental Health, and Cold Energy. Exceptional Research The University is one of the UK’s most successful in terms of attracting research funding. With a portfolio of 2,515 live projects valued at £709 million, our research record speaks for itself; the total value of research funding won by UoB in 2016/2017 was £170m, and we are looking to double our research income by 2026. More than 80 per cent of all research outputs submitted by Birmingham to the latest UK-wide research quality survey (REF 2014) were rated as internationally excellent or world leading, with 87 per cent of submitted research case studies judged to have global impact further confirming our position among the world’s top research universities in a broad range of areas. Outstanding Students We have been encouraging bold, independent thinking and providing exceptional academic programmes that stretch and challenge for more than a century. We are proud of our excellent teaching which has been recognised in both the University’s recent outstanding performance in the Quality Assurance Association’s (QAA) Higher Education Review and our Gold rating in the 2016/17 Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF). We understand that every student is individual with a unique learning style, and have invested in the latest learning facilities and technologies. As a result, we attract students with the finest academic credentials. Year on year, applications for our undergraduate places are growing rapidly and more impressively than they are nationally or for comparable universities – in 2017 we have received almost 90,000 applications for our programmes. This year, we will welcome approximately 12,000 undergraduate and postgraduate students at home and abroad. We are committed to delivering a first-class experience for our students in every aspect of their university life. Global Outlook Ranked 81st in the QS World University Rankings 2020, the University has a significant international presence. The University was one of the founding partners of, and remains highly active in the Universitas 21 global network of research intensive universities. Our global outlook has two main components. In research, the University has a focused approach with an emphasis on key country partnerships. In China, we have developed a broad range of activities, including a signature collaboration with the Guangzhou Municipal Government, and well developed research collaborations in many parts of the country; we also have a dedicated China Institute to further these partnerships. In Brazil, the Universities of Birmingham and Nottingham are working together in a unique collaboration to develop a network of strategic partnerships with Brazilian universities, as well as the oil and gas industry. In North America, the University has a major collaboration with the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign underpinned by a flourishing network of faculty-to-faculty relationships.