Head of Business School

Closing Date :  19 April, 2024 - 12:00

Terms: Full time - 37 hours per week

The Head of School post is offered on a 3-year basis with potential of extension of a further 2 years. A substantive post within the Faculty of Business and Law will be offered alongside the appointment commensurate with experience. The substantive post salary will be appropriate for the academic grade and dependent on the candidate’s credentials.

Closing Date : 19 April 2024

Interview Date: Middle of May

Role requirements

A hybrid working pattern can be adopted for this role, where the successful candidate can work from home and the office. As this role is contractually aligned to our Milton Keynes office it is expected that attendance in the office will be required when business needs dictate and as requested by the Executive Dean.

We would expect the successful candidate to be able to start on or before 1 August 2024.

Change your career, change lives.

The Open University is the UK’s largest university, a world leader in flexible part-time education combining a mission to widen access to higher education with research excellence, transforming lives through education.

The role

This senior leadership role will lead the School of Business within the Faculty of Business and Law and will position the school to become the leading inclusive online Business School in the world by 2030.

A pioneer in flexible learning for over 30 years, The Open University Business School delivers transformational, high-quality business and management education which is quality assured and practitioner relevant. We are proud to be part of an elite and exclusive group of the top 1% of global Business Schools which are triple accredited (AACSB, AMBA and EQUIS).

Our vision is to empower all business professionals who strive to create and transform opportunity in their lives and the lives of those around them. The school enables students to create opportunity, solve complex problems through continuous and applied learning, and improve business practice through research informed active learning pedagogy. In so doing graduates will be able to support diversity, create new knowledge and innovate to help achieve responsible economic growth. Our global community deliver social mobility and create a sustainable future for all.

Our internationally recognised and innovative teaching and learning methods future proof leadership and management practice, thereby enabling our students to think and act differently around opportunity and to better create new value in the changing business world. Tutors who are experienced business professionals comprise our teaching teams. Over 100,000 people from more than 120 countries have already studied with The Open University Business School. We design, structure, and teach our research-informed courses so that students can apply and test cutting edge learning in their workplace context straight away and in so doing we close the gap between theory and practice. We are dedicated to providing our students and alumni with the knowledge and skills they need to thrive in their workplace, or in a company that they will form, and to transform their careers and the lives of those working with/for them as a result. We have established strong alliances with employers as a result of the flexible way we deliver our qualifications and due to the industry relevance of those qualifications and together we are co-creating a curriculum aligned to help shape the ‘future of work’. We work closely with our International Advisory Board (IAB) to continue to ensure the currency of our leading international business and management education from the perspective of C-suite executives from a range of industry sectors across the world.

As the Head of Business School, you will exercise responsibility on behalf of the Executive Dean of the Faculty to lead the strategic development and enhancement of the school’s curriculum, research, teaching and learning delivery strategy and to ensure alignment with the strategic direction of the faculty and wider University. You will be a proactive change agent, comfortable with ambiguity and with a passion to create new value within the school. You will demonstrate inspirational leadership to all school staff and the wider Faculty by delivering a clear and ambitious vision, demonstrating sound business judgement, and delivering effective and balanced decision making with the University’s wider ambition in mind. You will demonstrate a commitment to the University’s values of innovation, inclusivity and responsiveness and aligned behaviours. 

Working in partnership with other senior executive colleagues, this role will help deliver the faculty’s strategic objectives through the development and implementation of agile and enabling Business School planning activities, which are in accordance with the faculty’s wider accountabilities and targets to the University and other stakeholders.

The role holder will lead on developing and managing key relationships between the school and with external stakeholders, research communities and teaching organisations in order to add maximum value to all areas of School endeavour especially focused on the quality of the student experience.

Skills and experience

Applicants should:

• have a PhD/DPhil or equivalent in terms of qualification or experience in a discipline relevant to the school as well as evidenced Academic Excellence in Teaching, Research and/or Scholarship in an appropriate field;
• have experience of leading and managing complex projects involving multiple and diverse participants with the ability to build networks and strategic relationships with both internal and external stakeholders.
• bring a strong academic track record with respect to both research and teaching and academic enterprise activity;
• demonstrate excellent leadership and management skills within a large portfolio;
• demonstrate the ability to lead people through volatile change and ambiguous operating contexts and, make positive use of the opportunities such environments present through the use of an entrepreneurial mindset;
• be an approachable and engaged leader, be able to communicate effectively with a diverse range of academic and professional services colleagues, inspiring them to co-create the solutions which ultimately underpin student success in a collaborative manner;
• be able to evidence extensive competency and skill in managing resources (people, financial, relational, time), overseeing and guiding as appropriate to ensure the effective day-to-day running of the school.

More information is available in the Job Description.