Hayley Burns

"My Personality Types results highlighted Communicator, Trainer and Coordinator and these are definitely areas I would consider strengths for me and of importance in my day-to-day role. Communicator and Trainer actually have similar attributes in many ways. From my early career as a lecturer being able to explain complex ideas to multiple audiences who learn in different ways was a key skill and that is something that has remained important to this day in all of the roles I have undertaken throughout my career. Training has been a part of every role I have done, even beyond my lecturing role. I am hugely passionate about helping others, sharing knowledge and empowering others to be the best that they can be. I qualified as an Executive Coach and mentor in 2021 and I think this indicates to you just how passionate I am about people and helping others. People are what I am most passionate about and what drives me. My listening skills are well honed from my coaching qualification but also from my experience with managing and leading teams which I have done for over 20 years. In my current role I am responsible for 350 people and over 4000 students all with differing perspectives, preferred ways of communicating and learning and different lived experiences. Being a good communicator in this context is critical but also something I enjoy and place value on. In terms of coordination, I was not surprised this was one of my three personality types. I am highly organised, work well with deadlines and always complete on time and to budget. You’ll see from my career history that I am a quality assurance specialist so this might explain why that came out as a key type! My role is hugely varied and no two days are the same, so with a large set of responsibilities it is imperative that I am organised. I love a to-do list but mainly for the satisfaction of putting a big red line through it or a big tick when I’ve completed something. And yes, I have been known to do something and then add it to the to-do list after, to get that same satisfaction…One other thing to know about me which may not have come out explicitly in the personality types, I am passionate about equity and as such I have developed my skills at being able to communicate to others what people want and advocate for others. I had an unfortunate experience when I was finishing my first year of lecturing where a professor I had gone to for advice about starting a PhD, someone I had huge respect for, told me I couldn’t do it – that I didn’t have the creative imagination to do one. One simple line, but I believed him and it changed my career path overnight. My current job brings me back on the path I had always intended to follow and is, in fact, my dream job. It feels wonderful to write that here. I have always strived to empower others as a result of that experience in the hopes that no one else would suffer that kind of crushing feedback. So, if you’re reading this, please know that you can do"

"In my role as Deputy Dean I am essentially responsible for the day-to-day running of my faculty, the Faculty of Computing, Engineering and Science, one of three faculties at USW. We offer courses in the main STEM subjects as well as more niche areas such as cyber security, forensic science and sustainable environment. All our courses are industry-linked with an emphasis on employability – we want to make sure our students go straight into employment. We have seven subject areas covering a myriad of courses and areas, headed up by a Head of Subject who reports into me. The University has a number of critical success factors, which are really just targets that we are aiming to meet and many of these are focused on student outcomes – how well we recruit, how many of our students stay and complete their students, how well they do in their degree, and what job they go on to. Working with the Heads of Subject and other senior staff in the Faculty we introduce new initiatives, monitor how effective they are and share good practice with others in order to improve on these targets year to year. As well as this, I am also responsible for quality assurance, student casework, health and safety, people talent and engagement and EDI. I was Head of Quality at my university for seven years, with another four year period as Deputy Academic Registrar during which time I also oversaw quality, so I am a specialist in this area now, particularly as I am also a reviewer for the Quality Assurance Agency (QAA), a body who oversee higher education in Wales. In my current role, I chair our Faculty Quality Assurance Committee which looks at areas such as curriculum development, amendments and monitoring, external examiner input, collaborative partnerships we have in the UK and overseas and student feedback. Student Casework refers to any academic appeals, student complaints, academic misconduct or other misconduct and risk assessment panels. I lead on this work for our faculty, carrying out risk assessments, undertaking or responding to investigations and helping to find solutions for our students. Health and Safety is a big part of my work because our faculty is very risky! We have large pieces of equipment, chemicals, bacteria etc so our protocols must be robust and managed well. I’ve talked a lot about my passion for people above, but in summary, when I am asked what my job really is and what it means, I tell them it gives me the great privilege of being able to identify, champion and empower people to fulfil their potential and make the most of the opportunities they have. In my commentary above you will see how passionate about EDI I am. I have introduced lots of initiatives while I’ve been in post, including special programmes on work to enhance our support of neurodivergent staff and students, establishing and leading a Women in STEM Network and running International Women’s Day events. To give you an indication of how passionate I am about this, on a person"

"Mine was a non-traditional route into this job. I started as a lecturer in Film Studies at Aberystwyth University and then moved over to the support services departments, mostly in what is called an Academic Registry setting – this is where student records are held, quality assurance of courses and curriculum are managed and student support is carried out. I was a Head of Certificates, then Head of Postgraduate Studies and then in 2007 I moved to what was then the University of Glamorgan but is now the University of South Wales. I became the Deputy and then Head of Quality, an area I very much specialised in. In 2012 as well as doing this role, I became a Reviewer for the Quality Assurance Agency. It reviews Universities, a bit like Ofsted (in England) and Estyn (in Wales) review schools. I am still a Reviewer and it is great experience as I get to see fantastic practice that goes on at other universities. In 2014 I became a Head of Administration for the Faculty of Business and Society. This is a role that is basically like a CEO – Chief Operating Officer. I looked after the budget, the human resources, the specialist resources and strategic planning. In 2018 I was asked to move back to become Deputy Academic Registrar and I took on responsibility for quality again but also student administration. In 2022 I then applied for, and became, the Deputy Dean in my current position. You can see it’s been varied! I’ve been in and out of faculty and support departments and been able to get a lot of experience of a number of areas involved in running a university. Typically, to get my job, you would have come through the academic route – lecturer, course leader, Head of Subject, Head of School. It is unusual for someone working in university support systems to move into an academic leadership job and perhaps even more unusual for that person to also have a non-STEM background. I've been fortunate enough to break two glass ceilings. I tell you that because now you know it's possible - anything is possible. Someone described my experience to me recently, when my imposter syndrome was rearing its head (see above!) that this is, in fact, my superpower. I can see that now. "

"I have a few hobbies that take up a lot of my spare time. I sing in a wonderful choir called 'Technicolour - we do mash-ups of songs from musicals with pop songs. I've just done my first public performances with them and it was exhilarating! I am teaching myself piano and can play clarinet to grade 7. I am a weight lifter and can highly recommend it for stress release but also to keep your bones strong. As we get older, we women find that a struggle so weight lifting helps to combat this.I am a part owner of a fabulous bar called 'Porter's' which also runs a lot of art and music events. Music fills my soul and in my kind of job, which has stressful days, I come back to music to soothe me. "

"In all honesty, a lot of my days are spent at the computer or in meetings. I don't know where I get the actual work done but I do. Because I am so people-focused, it's important to me that staff from across the faculty find me accessible, so I try to meet as many people as possible in a week and find time to do faculty-wide events. For example, last year I introduced a Faculty Wellbeing Week which was a week without meetings so that colleagues could catch up on work, do a piece of research, take some leave without worrying about hundreds of emails building up, or join in on a programme of activities I set up - we have a flight simulator on campus for our aircraft maintenance engineering course and that was the most popular. You won't know what The Krypton Factor is but ask your parents! We have a crime scene house too for our forensic courses so we also had 'solve a murder' sessions. As you'll see from throughout my profile, the EDI (equity, diversity and inclusion) work I am doing is really important to me. I am working on two big projects at the moment, bringing in external expertise to help me. One is with a company called Diversita who help neurodivergent people into jobs. They are helping me make sure how we recruit staff is inclusive and they are working with our final year students to help get them ready for the world of work. The other is with EqualEngineers who are doing an interview exercise with our recent recruits to see how effective our recruitment process is and something on 'pyschological safety' with our staff and students. As I said above, no two days are the same but this is a flavour of what I do. I'm happy to chat if you are interested in finding out more."

"Five A levels (English, History, Music, Art, General Studies)BA (Hons) Film and TelevisionPgCert Leadership and ManagementILM Level 7 Executive Coaching and Mentoring"