Associate Head of Production

Closing date: Tuesday 1^st July 2025 at midnight

Interview date: Wednesday 16^th July 2025

Introduction to YSJ University

York St John is an ambitious, modern university at the heart of historic York and there has never been a more exciting time to join us.

As one of the fastest growing universities in the U.K over recent years, we have a new strategy for the next decade, emphasising our commitment to widening opportunity through the power of education and contributing our talents to creating a fairer world, and a more prosperous region. We are putting inspirational learning and impactful research at the heart of this strategy, recognising our academic expertise as our greatest asset.

The School

The School of the Arts offers a range of degree programmes across undergraduate, postgraduate taught degrees and research degrees across four departments: Fine Art (Art, Photography, Illustration), Design (Graphic design, Interior Design, Animation, Games Design, Product Design, UXD, VR/AR), Performance (Acting, Musical Theatre and Music), and Production (Media Production, Music Production, TV and Film Production, Journalism and Sports Journalism). We have a diverse PGT portfolio and a rapidly growing PGR community. As a School, we are committed to student-centred teaching, applied creative practice, and live industry briefs, in order to challenge our learners to think about the world in different ways.

We are very active in projects involving work-related learning (including partnerships with a variety of external industries and companies, including an on-going Project with the BBC, BBC Introducing (housed within the department of Production). We are active in work to decolonise the curriculum and to build supportive and inclusive pedagogies. We have a thriving research community formed from a range of practitioners, action researchers and traditional researchers. There are opportunities for colleagues to share research and get involved with wider research projects, and colleagues are encouraged to develop research-informed teaching. We have a combination of early career researchers as well as active senior researchers, and we engage with a range of academic interests that impact our excellent teaching provision and expanding research portfolio. With around 70 staff in the School in total, we are a friendly, creative and collegiate community.

The role

As the Associate Head for Production, you will be responsible for leading a rapidly growing department which consists of Media Production, Music Production, Film and TV Production, Journalism and Sports Journalism. We are looking for a leader who will continue to develop the curriculum, the collaborative opportunities across courses, and collaborative activities with our many industry partners. With a growing international community, growing UG and PGT provision, the Associate Head will lead the next phase of revalidations and support the team in expanding our accredited course portfolio.

You will work to achieve the success of these distinct undergraduate programmes, as well as a range of MA and MRes programmes. All subject areas have an excellent reputation for learning and teaching, and have received strong NSS results over the last few years, as well as very good scores for PTES and PRES. We pride ourselves on offering an outstanding experience for our students. To do this, we have refurbished a number of our specialist spaces as well as benefitting from new edit suites, TV studios, recording studios and so on. The new Associate Head will lead on developing our collaborative relationship with our excellent technical team in optimizing our space utilisation and in ensuring we are future ready to support our students in building industry ready skills.

In this role, you will be part of the School Academic Leadership Team and will work closely with three other Associate Heads, our Directors of Teaching and Learning, Research and Innovation, PGR, EDI, and our Director of Converge, to support the Head of School in making key strategic decisions relating to a range of topics including staffing, recruitment, space utilisation, resource needs, external partnerships and internationalisation. You will lead by example in continuing to be an active researcher and in delivering to teaching to at least one of the programme areas. You will line-manage colleagues from each academic team (around 20 colleagues in total) and be responsible for delivering key performance objectives across your programmes. You will facilitate good communication across your teams and motivate colleagues to be the best that they can be. As approachable, decisive, and inspiring leader, you will be an enthusiastic advocate for your programmes and actively engaged with the university strategic plan.

Required skills and experience

The successful candidate will have research expertise, including a PhD (or nearing completion), in at least one of the areas of Media Production, Music Production, Film and TV Production, Journalism and Sports Journalism. Regardless of your personal specialism, you will need to demonstrate an appreciation and understanding of the other subject areas. As an experienced professional, with some industry experience and experience in higher education, you will have a strong portfolio in terms of teaching innovation, as well as having recognised scholarship in your area of expertise. Experience of programme management, budget management, leadership, and strategic thinking is essential. At York St John, our approach to leadership is collegiate and focuses on both empowering and supporting staff.

Additional information

For informal queries, please contact the Head of School, Professor Helen Julia Minors (h.minors@yorksj.ac.uk)

It is anticipated that the selection process will involve a presentation and panel interview. Further details will be provided to shortlisted candidates.

This role is eligible for Skilled Worker Visa sponsorship. For further information regarding this visa route please visit Skilled Worker visa: Overview - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).

We offer a range of family friendly and inclusive policies and facilities and welcome applications from individuals from underrepresented backgrounds. As part of our commitment to providing an inclusive working environment, consideration is given to all requests for job share or flexible working arrangements.

Application process support

We are keen to support you throughout the recruitment process. Before starting your application please refer to the attached candidate application form guidance below which provides advice about completing the application process.

If you require a reasonable adjustment in order to apply for this position please contact vacancies@yorksj.ac.uk. Within the application form there is an opportunity for you to request a reasonable adjustment at the interview stage of the process, however if you wish to discuss this in further detail at any point  in the process please do not hesitate to contact us. The following resource may help you adapt the device you are using to apply to suit your needs My Computer My Way (abilitynet.org.uk)

Please note that CVs are not accepted in place of the application form. Within the application process you will be asked to answer a selection of work-related questions. Our aim is to get to know you, and understand your individual skills and experience, and how you would apply these within the role.  We are aware that AI can assist you with this, but we would prefer you to share your answers in your own words.

Our benefits package

• We offer a wide range of employee benefits including:
• Excellent annual leave entitlement, including five discretionary university closure days over the Christmas period
• Disability leave (applies to staff who have disclosed a disability and is also available to staff with disabled dependants)
• Pension scheme
• Health Cash Plan after six months service
• Employee Assistance Programme
• Paid leave for Armed Forces Reservists
• On-campus courses, one-to-one tutorials, and online resources to help you develop your digital skills and work with new software
• Relocation expenses package for certain roles
• Reimbursement of Skilled Worker Visa application fees and Visa loan scheme for additional costs (if applicable to the role)

Further information about life at YSJ

Our attached 'further information' document below provides further information about our culture, achievements and testimonials from our employees.

Read more about our culture, inclusive community, working arrangements and benefits for York St John employees

Read the latest news, views and stories from our staff and students.

Read more about our commitment to managing and reducing our environmental impact and to promoting sustainable development wherever we can.