Description 

Job Title: Administrative Assistant: Community Health and Social Medicine

Reports to: Head, Community Health and Social Medine Department

Group/Department: School of Medicine

Location: Butaro, Rwanda with occasional posting in Kigali and at the other community learning sites 

Position Overview

The Research and Academic Assistant will provide administrative and academic support to the department of community health and social medicine.

They will provide high level support to the department and the different tasks including academic tasks such as scheduling, course/faculty evaluation, e-learning support, and other administrative duties. They will also be involved in research projects relevant to the Department of Community Health and social medicine.

The ideal candidate for this position is someone who is highly self-motivated and passionate about higher education, global and community health, with superior attention to detail and organizational skills. The Academic Administrative Assistant should possess previous experience in a wide range of academic and administrative tasks, the ability to work independently as well as part of a team, and effective communication. They will work closely with students, faculty and staff at all levels and across departments at UGHE, as well as important external partners. They must be exceedingly well organized, diplomatic, flexible, resourceful, and proactive. They must exhibit great discretion, handle confidential matters with the utmost care, and possess a high level of sophistication in managing complex issues.

Responsibilities 

Academic and administrative

• Provide general academic and administrative support to faculty. This includes but is not limited to course scheduling, managing grade records, compiling and recording academic syllabi, tracking student progress and coordinating exams.

• Oversee essential e-learning platforms such as Canvas, Populi and any other online platform, and provide technical support to faculty and students using these resources.

• Aid in the coordination of faculty/course evaluations and reports aimed at academic policy and curriculum development within the EDQC.

• Serve as a key point of contact for anything related to academic program delivery in the department of Community Health and Social Medicine. This includes participating in orientation and debriefing for visiting faculty and community faculty

• Serve as community-based education (CBE) instructor and create a positive link between UGHE and large network of community faculty

• Work collaboratively alongside other academic assistants, staff and faculty in other Divisions and Departments at UGHE

Research

• Provide general research support to the department of Community Health and Social Medicine, Schools of Medicine and EDQC research projects and studies (i.e., data collection and entry, data analysis, background research, writing protocols/reports/publications etc.)

General support and resource mobilization

• Coordinate all community activities/projects and Community based learning platforms. This includes leasing, coordinating and managing community learning facilities, faculty and community members.

• Managing community-based learning faculty support needs which include budgeting, issuing necessary compensation to community faculty and community members.

• Managing logistical needs of the department like booking transportation, budgeting and organization of teaching sites.

• Support resource mobilization for the department of community health and social medicine including preparing grant applications to external funding sources, coordinating reporting to external funders, and managing financial approval and other financial processes.

• Generating expense reports for department activities and developing

• Any additional tasks as directed by the Supervisor

Qualifications and competencies

• Bachelor’s degree in Public health, Community health, Environmental health, Healthcare management, Nursing, Biomedical Science or in another health relevant field;

• Academic or professional experience in research writing and data collection

• Competence and experience in working with a variety of communities in an area of health care and/or development work.

• Strong experience in general community engagement and health care activity planning, implementation and monitoring

• Experience in large activity planning, implementation finance support, evaluation and expense reporting

• Work experience in administrative, executive assistant, and/or personal assistant role(s) in an educational or relevant setting

• Fluency in Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Google softwares (Google Drive, Google sheets, Google forms)

• Ability to manage and prioritize projects with high attention to detail

• Ability to work under pressure, meet tight deadlines, and manage competing priorities

• Health sciences and/or global health content knowledge is a must

• Experience working in a higher education environment is preferred

• Experience of working and good understanding of Rwanda Health system

• Experience in multicultural working environments required; experience living and working in Sub Saharan Africa preferred

• Excellent written and oral communication skills in English and Kinyarwanda required; French language skills desired