Research Assistant (DFI Project)

This role is open to students studying at King?s College London. 

Research assistants will be managed by staff from the Department of Chemistry (Dr Helen Coulshed), Bioscience Education (Dr Mandeep Gill Sagoo and Dr Andrea Cockett), King?s Academy (Dr Martin Compton), and King?s Foundations (Jessica Cooper and Robin Yu).  

The research project aims to improve feedback engagement by students through the creation of 10 short, AI-generated, interactive videos, each 5-7 minutes long.  

Main duties and responsibilities: 

To work with staff and 2 other research associates to: 

•  Review current literature on feedback literacy related to UK Higher Education. 
• Co-create a storyboard for <10 short videos outlining key themes identified in the feedback literacy literature review. Advertise the opportunity to participate in research via focus group participation. 
• Coordinate and facilitate focus groups and interviews with students. 
• Analyse data collected and manage data in accordance with GDPR guidelines. 
• Discuss data collection and analysis issues with the Research team.  
• Adapt multimedia output, including AI-generated outputs, created based on focus group and interview feedback. 
• Collaborate with the Academic Skills team when finalising the storyboards  
• Work with King?s Digital to add resources to Academic Skills asynchronous resources and organise a second set of focus groups to beta test videos/resources. 
• Present findings to the research team and key university stakeholders. 
• Undertake any other reasonable duties as required by the team. 
• Engage in training and professional development activities related to the project. 

The role is fractional (0.1 FTE, 4hours/week, December-July 2025). Hours of work will predominantly be scheduled remotely between Monday-Friday, 09.00-17.00 with some on campus meetings as needed and with prior agreement. There will be flexibility in how your hours are spread and you will be expected to manage your own workload depending on activity. 

NONE

Experience/Skills required 

1. Strong interpersonal skills.  
2. Ability to build relationships with a wide range of people from different backgrounds. 
3. Experience in managing own workload, planning, and organising projects or activities independently. 
4. Excellent communication skills and ability to present ideas. 
5. Ability to adhere to GDPR and ethical guidelines and to follow data storage security protocols. 

The desirable criteria for the role are: 

D1. Experience of literature searching. 

D2. Experience of reference management software. 

D3. Knowledge and experience of qualitative data analysis  

D4. Experience of audio recording and transcription software. 

D5. Experience of editing videos. 

Research Assistant in Genomics

MSc degree

1) experience of laboratory work: nucleic acid extraction, PCR, making sequencing libraries etc.

2) experience of working with MS office including Excel and powerpoint

3) experience of working in Unix environment and with R, with NGS data

4) experience/ knowledge of genomics including mutations and variant calling.

5) have excellent communication and team working skills

The Money Mentors are current and recently graduated students at King's College London who have a passion for helping their peers by ensuring they are as money-savvy as possible.

Money Mentors engage with current and prospective students throughout the year by supporting Open Days, Welcome Events and leading on their own money-themed campaigns to ensure that students are informed, empowered and aware of key student issues that may impact their financial position.

The Student Money Mentors project is student led, with guidance from the Money & Housing Advisors. The campaigns, self-help articles, blogs and Instagram content is all created by students, for students.

The job role is as follows:

• To work as a student-staff member of the Money & Housing Advice Service, and work with specialist advisors of the service at both on and off campus activities.
• To acknowledge the importance of empowering students, to understand their options and act with respect to money.
• To signpost students to information and resources relating to student money and funding, and the broader activities of the Money & Housing Advice Service at events, via student comms and on social media.
• To support and facilitate other events across the campus where Money Mentors will be involved.
• To work at least one shift (3 hours minimum) during each of our annual week-long campaigns.
• To work at least one shift (3 hours minimum) during each week of Welcome to King's.
• To attend all monthly team meetings (usually last Wednesday of every month via Microsoft Teams), Money Mentor related training, Planning Days, briefings, preparatory meetings.
   

Additional Information:

• All Money Mentors are expected to adhere to King's policies and procedures.
• Money Mentors will adhere to a 3-Strike System. Failure to respond to any correspondence, failure to attend shifts/ 121s/ debriefs (without prior acknowledgement and valid reasons) and failure to adhere to King's policies and procedures may result in a Strike and subsequent termination from employment on the programme.
• It is expected that Money Mentors will have to dedicate approximately 1-2 hours a week of work during the lead up to our annual week-long campaigns.
• Please note: demand for Student Money Mentors can vary during the academic year and therefore hours of work will vary accordingly. If you are offered the position, you will be required to sign our confidentiality agreement and terms and conditions form for this role.
• Please note: this job description reflects the core activities of the role, however, as the College and the post-holder develop there will inevitably be changes in the emphasis of duties. It is expected that the post-holder recognises this and will adopt a flexible approach to work and be willing to participate in training. If changes to the job become significant, the job description should be reviewed formally by the post-holder and line manager.

If you are offered this position, you MUST BE AVAILABLE to attend the in-person Money Mentor training. Training days for this role will take place on the following days:

• Training Day 1 - Saturday 18th January 2025 
• Training Day 2 - Saturday 25th January 2025
• Training Day 3 - Saturday 1st February 2025 (TBC)

Please apply here: https://forms.office.com/e/HVTxdb3F0X. If you have any queries, please email money@kcl.ac.uk with the subject line 'King's Student Money Mentor - KTB Job Ad'.

Essential: 

• Studying an Undergraduate degree or Postgraduate study at King's College London

KNOWLEDGE

Essential: 

• An understanding of student money (e.g., student debt, budgeting, money management and saving) with interest to expand this knowledge. 
• Interest in money management and helping students become money-savvy. 

Desirable: 

• An understanding of where to find information on methods of budgeting and concepts such as ISAs, interest, credit and debt, student discounts, housing in London, familiarisation with King?s Student Services Online, online financial safety (e.g., scams), student funding (e.g., SFE, NHS, etc).

SKILLS

Essential: 

• Good verbal and written communication skills to deliver clear and relevant content to different audiences.
• Ability to communicate effectively with peers and staff.
• Ability to demonstrate an empathetic and non-judgemental nature when dealing with staff and peers. 
• Ability to work within a team and independently.
• Good organisational skills which ensure that assigned tasks are completed within the deadline.
• Proficient in Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Teams, Outlook).
• Ability to write blogs and articles aimed at students.
• Ability to create videos aimed at students.
• Ability to create promotional social media content, blogs, or videos for upcoming campaigns.
• Ability to create and deliver presentations online and in-person.
• Comfortable with public speaking and taking a lead on creating and managing activities aimed at students. 

 Desirable:

• Ability to write blogs and articles aimed at students.
• Ability to create videos aimed at students.
• Ability to create promotional social media content, blogs, or videos for upcoming campaigns.
• Ability to create and deliver presentations online and in-person.
• Comfortable with public speaking and taking a lead on creating and managing activities aimed at students.
   

EXPERIENCE

Desirable:

• Experience working with peers and/or peer support initiatives either externally or within King's College London.
• Personal experience involving money and/or housing.