Ruth Hattam

School Registrar

Although I have worked in administration for over 20 years, I had no clear career plans when I was a history student at Lancaster University in the mid-eighties.  At that time the most obvious degree-related career choice for me was teaching – but it didn’t really appeal. Not really knowing what I wanted to do, I realised I needed to pick up some marketable skills so I moved to London and enrolled on a post-graduate secretarial course for one year.

I then worked as an administrator for a Computer training and consultancy computer in central London but eventually tired of the big city so decided to relocate. I had visited Newcastle many times, I loved the city and the lifestyle and had friends there, so I moved and did temporary work for a few months. I then worked at the National Garden Festival in Gateshead in 1990 on a fixed term contract where I thoroughly enjoyed meeting a whole range of people.

By the end of that contract, I’d decided I wanted to work in the public sector, spotted a role at Newcastle Polytechnic and became Senior Academic Administrator in the Faculty of Arts and Design. I enjoyed this role very much and stayed there for 3 years before achieving an internal promotion to become Senior Administrator in the Faculty of Social Sciences in 1994. This was quite a different role for me within the university as I was now more focussed on supporting a specific academic area (the Division of Government and Politics). Again, I enjoyed this role, but an opportunity for promotion appeared again in 1995 and I became Deputy Faculty Registrar for the Faculty of Social Sciences and stayed there for 3 years. My next promotion occurred in 1998 when I returned to the Faculty of Arts and Design as Faculty Registrar.

My university career to this point had been solely within the ‘arts’ side but that was to change in 2002 when I became School Registrar for the School of Informatics after a university reshuffle by the new Vice-Chancellor. Although this was a bit of a culture change, it was great to work with lots of new and interesting people, and I enjoyed the new challenge.

My final job change then occurred in 2004 when the Schools of Informatics, and Engineering and Technology merged to form the new School of Computing, Engineering and Information Sciences. The challenge was then to merge two existing admin groups but with everyone’s help, I feel we have successfully achieved this and one of the pleasures I get from my job is overseeing the wide range of admin activities needed in a School of this size.

Away from the university, I like to travel, read and listen to music.  I’m also quite active and enjoy running, cycling and swimming.

 

 

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