Lecturer in Statistics Support

This is a full-time academic post shared between the Department of Mathematics and Physics and sigma, the team that provides Mathematics and Statistics support to undergraduates and postgraduates from all faculties and to staff across the University doing research.

The statistics modules offered by the Department of Mathematics and Physics (in the Faculty of Engineering and Computing) contribute to a degree in Mathematics and Statistics but are open to all its undergraduates. The person appointed will spend 40% of their time in the Department (rising to 50% after three years) and their remaining time with sigma. Their duties as a lecturer in the Department include module development and delivery, tutoring, applied research and a proportionate share of departmental administration, Sigma’s two most important services are its MathematicsSupport Centre (MSC) and its Statistics Advisory Service (SAS). The Support Centre, strategically situated in the University’s Lanchester Library, is typically open 40 hours a week and deals with over 10,000 student visits a year.  The appointee’s 60% contribution to sigma will be within the Statistics Service, which is led by Professor Tim Sparks and has four main strings to its teaching bow: (1) Regular time-slots in the Support Centre when students can drop in without an appointment for statistics advice; (2) Hour-long appointments for students working on undergraduate projects and postgraduate theses, and for University staff undertaking research; (3) Statistics workshops for staff and research students on wide-ranging topics from SPSS training to multiple regression; (4) Occasional training on topics such as numerical reasoning and the use of Excel.
In addition to its front-line teaching, sigma has several important subsidiary roles. These include the creation of teaching and learning resources, the promotion of its services across campus through personal contacts and interest groups, consultancy for research projects, and contributions to the national mathematics and statistics support network (also called sigma).


Priority will be given to candidates who have experience in the application of statistics in the work place, who bring some expertise in statistics software (e.g. SPSS especially, Minitab and R), who can communicate at many levels and, above all, who care about students and are strongly committed to teaching.

Closing date: 7 March 2014

The provisional date for interviews is Friday 21 March 2014

Please click here for the job description and person specification.
Please click here to apply online for this vacancy.
Informal inquiries to Trevor Hawkes, Director of sigma: Trevor.hawkes@coventry.ac.uk or Tel: 024 7688 7595