Research Assistant for the project “Mobilising and co-creating international human rights law to achieve SDG 4.2’s promise of quality early childhood care and education for all children”

Deadline for applications: 9 June 2025

Professor Sandy Fredman is looking for a research assistant to help with communications for the project “Mobilising and co-creating international human rights law to achieve SDG 4.2's promise of quality early childhood care and education for all children”

The project aims and objectives are:

To utilize binding international human rights law to realise the full potential of SDG 4.2 (to ensure all young children have access to quality early childhood education and care), which research by partners on our ESRC early childhood grant has shown is critical to young children’s long-term intellectual functioning, health and development. We will take both a top-down and a bottom-up approach:

(i) Top-down: Work with UNESCO and the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Education to further develop our jointly created Guiding Principles setting out countries’ obligations in respect of their early childhood provision. We will conduct roundtable online consultations with early childhood NGOs in our four regional networks and then work with the UN Special Rapporteur to incorporate feedback for inclusion in her report to the UN in 2025 and disseminate widely.

(ii) Bottom-up: Work with civil society organizations in various African countries to develop and submit reports to the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child to draw attention to gaps in ECCE in their countries (which we have successfully piloted), so the Committee can require governments to improve their provision.

Tasks for the Research Assistant will be:

• Social Media Management: Working closely with the Oxford Human Rights Hub to developing and scheduling posts across relevant social media platforms; Include relevant visuals and accurate attribution for images used and monitor and interacting with posts mentioning this work
• Work with the Oxford Human Rights Hub podcast team to create dedicated web pages for new podcast episodes relevant to this work and designing promotional materials
• Graphic design and visual content creation
• Interacting with the Oxford law faculty to promote the work

Duration and hours

Working hours: a total of up to 40 hours across the duration of the project, to be agreed with the project supervisor.

Start date: 6th June 2025

Date by which the work must be completed: 31st March 2026

Reporting

The Research Assistant will report to Professor Sandy Fredman

Requirements

Essential

• Proven experience managing multi-platform social media communications in an academic, non-profit, or media setting.
• Strong copywriting, editing, and content curation skills.
• Familiarity with MailChimp, Canva, Clipchamp, Buffer (or similar tools).
• Excellent attention to detail in content creation and tagging/attribution.
• Basic web publishing skills (e.g., uploading content to WordPress or similar CMS).
• Ability to manage multiple tasks independently and adapt to evolving communications need

Desirable

• Background or interest in human rights, child development, education, law, or academic publishing.
• Experience working in higher education or with academic faculty.
• Multimedia editing skills (GIF/video creation and basic audio handling) are a plus.

Your normal place of work will be the St Cross Building or the Manor Road Building, Manor Road.  However, provided you have the agreement of your PI/Supervisor, and a suitable space to work (including library access if required), it may be possible to undertake the work remotely.  

In all cases the work must be undertaken in the UK. 

Please note that you will be required to complete a Right to Work check before starting work. The Law Faculty HR Team will contact you directly to arrange for the appropriate check to take place. What is a right to work check? | Staff Immigration (ox.ac.uk)

Eligibility

This opportunity is open to current graduate students in the Faculty of Law and its associated Centres and Institutes; and the Department of International Development; and Blavatnik School of Government.

Rate of Pay

The work will be paid at £18.43 per hour, which equates to University Grade 6, point 1, on the basis of completed and approved timesheets, which must be submitted to payroll@law.ox.ac.uk by the last Friday of each calendar month for payment on the last working day of the following month.

In addition, paid annual leave will be assumed to be taken in the month in which it was accrued.

Funding

This opportunity is funded by a grant from the Oxford University Social Sciences Division Impact Acceleration Account Sustainable Development Goals scheme (IAA SDG)

Project code C0R00060 – BA00.01

How to Apply

A short CV and cover letter (including the name of your supervisor) should be sent by email to sandra.fredman@law.ox.ac.uk before the deadline for applications. Please explain how you meet the requirements for the role, and give details of your availability. Supervisors may be asked for a reference. 

Enquiries about the project are welcome, and may be addressed to the above email. General queries, e.g. about the appointment process, or eligibility, may be addressed to research@law.ox.ac.uk.