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    Aston University Reviews

    Updated 6 September 2017
    43 reviews

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    Full-timePart-time
    3.8
    StarStarStarStarStar
    Rating TrendsRating Trends
    Recommend to a friend
    Approve of CEO
    Aston University Chancellor John Sunderland
    John Sunderland
    5 Ratings

    43 Employee Reviews

    Sort: PopularRatingDate
    Pros
    Cons

    • Virtually no advancement opportunties for support staff (in 4 reviews)

    • This is in contrast to academics, who have a procedure in place for promotion (in 2 reviews)

    More Pros and Cons

    1. "Excellent"

      StarStarStarStarStar
      • Work/Life Balance
      • Culture & Values
      • Career Opportunities
      • Comp & Benefits
      • Senior Management
      Current Employee - Anonymous Employee
      Current Employee - Anonymous Employee
      Recommends
      Positive Outlook
      No opinion of CEO

      I have been working at Aston University full-time

      Pros

      Good university, great teaching and great experience.

      Cons

      Can be a bit boring sometimes.

      Advice to Management

      Do more to make the uni fun.

    2. "Laboratory Intern Review Summer 2016"

      StarStarStarStarStar
      • Work/Life Balance
      • Culture & Values
      • Career Opportunities
      • Comp & Benefits
      • Senior Management
      Former Employee - Anonymous Employee
      Former Employee - Anonymous Employee
      Recommends
      Negative Outlook
      No opinion of CEO

      I worked at Aston University full-time

      Pros

      Very relaxed, Can work on own projects, really is what you make of it.

      Cons

      No real structure, too relaxed, no challenge presented.

      Advice to Management

      needs more structure

    3. "pros and cons"

      StarStarStarStarStar
      • Work/Life Balance
      • Culture & Values
      • Career Opportunities
      • Comp & Benefits
      • Senior Management
      Current Employee - Anonymous Employee
      Current Employee - Anonymous Employee
      Recommends
      Positive Outlook
      No opinion of CEO

      I have been working at Aston University full-time

      Pros

      career development opportunities if you know how the system works

      Cons

      work place politics is thrife

      Advice to Management

      you are not gods.

      4. Is this helpful? The community relies on everyone sharing – Add Anonymous Review

    4. "Enjoyable Work"

      StarStarStarStarStar
      • Work/Life Balance
      • Culture & Values
      • Career Opportunities
      • Comp & Benefits
      • Senior Management
      Former Employee - Teaching Assistant in Birmingham, England
      Former Employee - Teaching Assistant in Birmingham, England
      Recommends
      Positive Outlook
      Approves of CEO

      I worked at Aston University part-time (More than 3 years)

      Pros

      Teaching and explaining to university students how to apply their knowledge to questions, providing them with helpful tips and watching their continuous and incredible progression is very satisfying.
      Gives good experience in teaching and presenting to groups.
      Students are usually very friendly and appreciative.

      Cons

      Students do expect a lot more help than you are contracted to give, it is difficult to say no, or time consuming to say yes.
      Depends on the lecturer you are helping. You don't get paid for preparation time,so unless the lecturer gives you very good and useful material, preparation can be time consuming.

      Advice to Management

      The university, the students and me all expect and require Teaching Assistants to do tutorial preparation for the best results. Therefore I think preparation time should be paid.

    5. "Aston Ambassador"

      StarStarStarStarStar
      Current Employee - Anonymous Employee
      Current Employee - Anonymous Employee

      I have been working at Aston University part-time

      Pros

      Very flexible hours and good pay.

      Cons

      Very few jobs available on a monthly basis, therefore you may be unable to work as frequently as you desire.

    6. "Best company"

      StarStarStarStarStar
      • Work/Life Balance
      • Culture & Values
      • Career Opportunities
      • Comp & Benefits
      • Senior Management
      Current Employee - Anonymous Employee
      Current Employee - Anonymous Employee
      Recommends
      Positive Outlook
      Approves of CEO

      Pros

      Very friendly, good benefits, love it

      Cons

      None! Great company to work for.

    7. "Friendly place to work but hard to progress"

      StarStarStarStarStar
      • Work/Life Balance
      • Culture & Values
      • Career Opportunities
      • Comp & Benefits
      • Senior Management
      Current Employee - Anonymous Employee in Birmingham, England
      Current Employee - Anonymous Employee in Birmingham, England

      I have been working at Aston University full-time (More than 3 years)

      Pros

      Small campus, generally a nice place to work within reach of Birmingham city centre, made lots of friends.

      Cons

      Virtually no advancement opportunties for support staff. Lack of fair promotion system means that those who can curry favour with senior management tend to get promoted above the best people for the job. This is in contrast to academics, who have a procedure in place for promotion.

      Advice to Management

      Let's talk about job satisfaction instead of avoiding the issue.

    8. Helpful (3)

      "Appalling place to work"

      StarStarStarStarStar
      • Work/Life Balance
      • Culture & Values
      • Career Opportunities
      • Comp & Benefits
      • Senior Management
      Former Employee - Anonymous Employee
      Former Employee - Anonymous Employee
      Doesn't Recommend
      Negative Outlook
      No opinion of CEO

      I worked at Aston University full-time

      Pros

      Many good people working here especially at more junior levels, close to Birmingham city centre and transport links, diverse student population, campus is being renovated, new vice chancellor has an opportunity to replace appalling senior and executive managers

      Cons

      Politicised environment, much conflict and bickering, staff are overworked and under-resourced, too much emphasis on research funding when it's really a teaching university, culture of bullying by senior management and executives, finance and legal departments are a mess and extremely poorly led

      Advice to Management

      End the bullying, start respecting people, stop thinking of yourselves as high and mighty

    9. "as good as it could be"

      StarStarStarStarStar
      • Work/Life Balance
      • Culture & Values
      • Career Opportunities
      • Comp & Benefits
      • Senior Management
      Former Employee - Cleaning Operative in Birmingham, England
      Former Employee - Cleaning Operative in Birmingham, England

      I worked at Aston University (Less than a year)

      Pros

      Kind colleagues, living wage salary, understanding managers, and I'm going to waffle until the 20 word minimum is up now.

      Cons

      antisocial hours, some staff easier to get along with than others, broken facilities, but nothing out of the ordinary for your standard estates and capital developments job.

      Advice to Management

      fix your equipment, hire more staff or increase hours, almost ever member of staff will inevitably work overtime for all the tasks required properly, if they are not cutting corners in their hurry to leave.

    10. "principal head chef"

      StarStarStarStarStar
      • Work/Life Balance
      • Culture & Values
      • Career Opportunities
      • Comp & Benefits
      • Senior Management
      Former Employee - Anonymous Employee
      Former Employee - Anonymous Employee
      Doesn't Recommend
      Negative Outlook
      Disapproves of CEO

      Pros

      none really senior management looks out for themselves

      Cons

      lack of opportunity long hrs

      Advice to Management

      no direction

    Showing 43 of 56 reviews
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