Staff Profile: Victoria Robson
Victoria Robson joined us in the summer of 2024 as our Head of Administration and Finance (HAF). The HAF role holds responsibility overall for the administration of the School (finance, personnel, student administration, buildings management, research administration, IT/systems and communications) as well as liaison with central University and Social Sciences Division. In 2023, Victoria was awarded one of the prestigious Vice-Chancellor’s Professional Services Awards which recognise the extraordinary contribution that colleagues in administrative, professional and support roles make to the University, and to furthering Oxford’s academic mission.
Meet the HAF:
What are you looking forward to in your current role?
Everything! I’m mostly looking forward to meeting everyone, new people. I try to have an open door policy, like face to face meetings and want to hear from all of you! I have worked in the Central University for many years so am enjoying widening my scope but at the same time narrowing my focus to the School.
The Head of Administration and Finance post is a big role encompassing all aspects of non-academic administration at the School. If you were talking to someone about to take on a HAF post in the University, what advice or top tip would you give them to help them in their first year?
Listen and learn. Be as organised as you can and take notes! Colleagues will give up their time to introduce their academic specialism or their area of expertise and you will need to be present. Everything else will flow and remember you’re not expected to know everything straight away!
Is your new role here changing or challenging how you think about archaeology?
I will admit to a life long interest in all things Archaeological and so really, I am a sponge right now and devouring all that I am learning. I have been lucky enough to already have taken part in a Viking burial crime scene (thanks Robyn!), toured the C14 lab and watched an ancient horse’s tooth being processed for testing!
You have worked in various senior support research positions at this University for over twenty years. What can professional services teams and individuals do to help make a successful research environment?
The role of a good professional services team in a research environment is transformative and I have been lucky enough to be part of some excellent research groups throughout my career. The ones that worked the best where the concept of partnership was successful and bought into. A professional services support team are just that, we are here to support you – the academic – in positioning or translating your research into something the Sponsor will accept and, ultimately fund. We should also be or know the experts on the wider funding landscape and help you create a research culture that facilitates the highest standards of rigour, recognises collaboration and innovation and support research practice for all stages of the academic career pathway.
Image credit: Adobe Firefly
Is crocheting a good wellbeing practice?
For me it is, yes! I don’t think I’ll ever be good at it, I can’t ever remember what I’m stitch I’m crocheting but I enjoy the trying, creating new neural pathways and seeing my slightly lopsided creation at the end. My family are all wearing the many scarves I’ve knitted and crocheted (I can only knit in a straight’ish line)
What’s a cause that you are passionate about?
Widening participation in Schools. I’ve been a secondary school governor for a number of years and am now vice-chair on the local academy trust and have had a ring-side seat on the rollercoaster of secondary school educational standards and funding. School leaders and teachers are doing their absolute best against such difficult circumstances across the national landscape and I feel I can support in a small way by playing an active part in the strategic governance and now leadership of a large school. I have found a lot of synergies in the skills needed to be a Governor with that of a HAF (understanding the value of meaningful questions for example). I have participated in an OFSTED inspection (terrifying), attend quarterly visits to School for ‘learning walks’, sat on pupil expulsion committees (awful) and conducted teacher disciplinary panels (awful again).
If you were a guest on Desert Island Discs, what luxury item would you take with you to the Island? (In accordance with the DI rules you can’t use it to escape or communicate).
Vaseline (I will take no questions).
