Bulletin speaks to Ellie about her role, her motivations and what’s coming up…
What drew you to your role and what has your University of Edinburgh journey been like?
In 2019, I started working in the Postgraduate Admissions team at the College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences (CAHSS).
I then joined the Governance, Quality Assurance and Enhancement Team in CAHSS as an Academic Administration Officer in 2022. In this role, I was able to start working on enhancement projects. These included developing a new committee format for the College Student-Staff Liaison Committee and refreshing my team’s SharePoint pages. I also became involved in a couple of continuous improvement groups working under the Student Lifecycle Management Group (SLMG) to improve course enrolment and student voice processes.
When I saw my current role as a Continuous Improvement Partner advertised, I was interested straight away because the role focussed on supporting all seven of the Continuous Improvement User Groups working under SLMG. This would give me the opportunity to take a more active role in enhancement projects, which was an area of work I had been particularly enjoying. I would also be working in the central Strategic Change Service, allowing me to work on projects affecting the whole University.
Can you describe your role in three words?
Making things better.
What do you most like about your role?
I like seeing initiatives make a tangible improvement to staff and student experiences. It’s very satisfying to hear feedback or see a measurable impact from something you were involved with changing that has improved a part of someone’s job or student experience.
If you could change one thing about your role, what would it be?
I would like to have more other Continuous Improvement Partners to work with! Currently, I’m the only person in my role but it would be great if in the future there were more people to support taking forward this type of work.
What were some of your 2024 professional highlights?
Getting this job! I started my role in May this year and the role itself was new as well. It’s been really interesting to get to know this area of work and everyone working in it.
The Continuous Improvement User Groups I support are working on everything from course enrolment timelines to improving students’ sense of belonging to the University. It’s been interesting but also a big task to learn about all the different initiatives the groups are working on and how these connect to all the colleges, schools, services, staff and students across the University.
What project on the horizon are you most looking forward to?
I’m looking forward to supporting the Orientation and Induction Continuous Improvement User Group alongside the Pre-Arrival and Induction Team to review the Induction Guiding Principles.
We’re going to be looking at creative ways to help staff embed these to give students the best welcome possible to the University. I think this is a really important area of work that everything else can build on.
What gets you out of bed in the morning?
Usually having to take my dog Halley for a walk! She’s a typical greyhound though – pretty lazy. Often it’s more me getting her out of bed for a walk than the other way round…
How are you going to relax over the festive season?
Long dog walks up some (not too big) hills and lots of delicious food!
