Scholarships & Funding
Faculty Institute of Graduate Studies (FIGS) online
Visit the FIGS website for information about funding for graduate research activities.
Inaugural Lecture Series
Helen Matthews
1. What is your current role at UCL and what does it involve?
My current role is Joint Faculty Academic Administration Manager for Arts and Humanities and Social and Historical Sciences. It’s a new role. Instead of having separate Faculty Tutors for each Faculty, Arne Hofmann (the Joint Faculty Tutor) and I share the workload for both Faculties between us. I focus more on processes and quality assurance issues. In the longer term I hope to be able to improve procedures in a way that will make life easier for departments.
2. What attracted you to this position?
I was previously a Departmental Administrator in the History Department at UCL, and was attracted to this role because it offered career development and a greater focus on academic administration.
3. What is the most enjoyable part of your job?
It’s quite early days, as I only started full-time in the role in December, and Arne and I are still working out our priorities and work programme. At the moment, it is interesting to meet colleagues and find out more about what the various departments in the Faculties are doing.
4. What is your life like outside UCL?
I am a Fellow of the Association of University Administrators (AUA), a professional association for university administrators, and am a member of the Board of Studies for the Postgraduate Certificate in Professional Practice (Higher Education Administration and Management).
Aside from that, I’m hoping to complete my PhD thesis on medieval English bastards soon. Other than that, I watch too much Doctor Who, and enjoy travel. Recently I have accompanied my husband on his worldwide quest to visit places with a Womble named after them. Tomsk (Siberia) and Bungo (Japan) were my favourites.
5. If you weren’t doing this job, what would you like to do?
I really enjoy working in university administration, so I would probably be doing something similar elsewhere. But if I was going to do something really different, my fantasy jobs would be either presenting a TV documentary on medieval bastards or running a combined bookshop and tea-room.
