Access Officer (Partnerships and Summer Schools)

University of Sheffield - Marketing, Admissions, Recruitment & Communications

Location:	Sheffield, Hybrid
Salary:	£32,080 to £36,636 with potential to progress to £39,906 through sustained exceptional contribution
Hours:	Full Time
Contract Type:	Permanent

Placed On:	6th February 2026
Closes:	8th March 2026
Job Ref:	2213

Job description:

Are you passionate about social mobility and opening doors to Higher Education?

The Access Service has an exciting opportunity for someone to use their skills in collaboration and intervention design to make a measurable impact on university access for underrepresented groups.

We seek a collaborator who believes background shouldn’t limit potential. If you understand the barriers underrepresented groups face and have the drive to propose innovative solutions, this role is for you. Candidates should be educated to degree level or equivalent (or with equivalent experience) with partnership relationship management experience and knowledge of the barriers preventing progression to Higher Education.

If you are passionate about widening participation and collaborative interventions, we would love to hear from you.

The Role and Your Impact

As our Access Officer for Partnerships and Summer Schools, you will be the driving force behind our collaborative activities. You will use your relationship management skills to support essential activity, helping to ensure the reputation of the University, ensuring the effective delivery of our targeted interventions. You will play a key role in maintaining our reputation for excellent access initiatives supporting underrepresented groups by working collaboratively with internal and external partners to shape and deliver targeted interventions.

This is a varied role where you will:

• Lead high-profile partnerships with organisations such as The Brilliant Club and the Sutton Trust.
• Operationally deliver major initiatives such as the Access to Sheffield Summer School, with thorough integration of child safeguarding and data protection procedures.
• Drive evidence-led success by recording, evaluating, and reviewing all activities to ensure they meet regulatory frameworks and drive positive outcomes.
• Build strong relationships with key stakeholders such as schools, partners, and internal University departments to champion our missions.
• Recruit and mentor Student Ambassadors to help deliver impactful activities.
• Manage operational and financial aspects of your projects to ensure they are demonstrative of sector best practices.
• Contribute to the sector through impact reporting and publications that demonstrate best practice in access and participation.

Our Department

You will join the Access Service in Marketing, Admissions, Recruitment and Communications (MARC), a dedicated team committed to delivering an evidence-based curriculum that enhances equality and inclusion. We pride ourselves on a culture where everyone feels they belong. Focussing on prospective student engagement, you will be an integral part of our wider department, contributing to service-wide planning and collaborative success.

We are committed to exploring flexible working opportunities which benefit the individual and University.

What We Offer

The University of Sheffield is a remarkable place to work. Our people are at the heart of everything we do. Their diverse backgrounds, abilities and beliefs make Sheffield a world-class university.

We offer a fantastic range of benefits including a highly competitive annual leave entitlement (with the ability to purchase more), a generous pensions scheme, flexible working opportunities, a commitment to your development and wellbeing, a wide range of retail discounts, and much more.

Find out more at sheffield.ac.uk/jobs/benefits and join us to become part of something special.

We build teams of people from different heritages and lifestyles from across the world, whose talent and contributions complement each other to greatest effect. We believe diversity in all its forms delivers greater impact through research, teaching and student experience.