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Southampton Solent University logo

Joining SolentFind out everything you need to know about working for Solent - getting you ready to build your career.

We're delighted to welcome you to Solent

Ensuring an excellent people experience where our staff and students live our Solent values is at the heart of all we do. I hope you have been able to experience this first hand during your recruitment to your new role.

We are committed to supporting everyone to aspire to, and deliver, excellence, as well as developing to their full potential. We reward excellence and recognise the value diversity and equality bring to our community. Throughout your induction and beyond, you will find out more about the ways we will support you to achieve this - through engaging with your career pathway and performance and development reviews, in the importance we place on your health and wellbeing, and how we celebrate the diverse contribution you can make to our University through our staff awards.

We support our managers to be Solent Leaders as 'We Care', focusing on the power of 'We', Communication, Authenticity, Recognition and Role-modelling and Empowerment.

Two Solent staff members walking through one of the city's parks

We're delighted to welcome you to Solent

Ensuring an excellent people experience where our staff and students live our Solent values is at the heart of all we do. I hope you have been able to experience this first hand during your recruitment to your new role.

We are committed to supporting everyone to aspire to, and deliver, excellence, as well as developing to their full potential. We reward excellence and recognise the value diversity and equality bring to our community. Throughout your induction and beyond, you will find out more about the ways we will support you to achieve this - through engaging with your career pathway and performance and development reviews, in the importance we place on your health and wellbeing, and how we celebrate the diverse contribution you can make to our University through our staff awards.

We support our managers to be Solent Leaders as 'We Care', focusing on the power of 'We', Communication, Authenticity, Recognition and Role-modelling and Empowerment.

Two Solent staff members walking through one of the city's parks

If you have any questions, ideas or feedback, there are a number of ways you can communicate with us. You can speak to your manager or Solent Buddy, contact your head of department or director of service, or meet with your business partner from People and Development. We also have a people forum called Solent Voice where we share ideas and much more.

If you have a question for the Vice-Chancellor you can email AskTheVC@solent.ac.uk, or ask at the VC welcome breakfast you will be invited to. We value your feedback on your people experience.

Information included on this page:

  • Finding your way around

    You'll be taken on a campus tour on your first day but to get your bearings beforehand, take a look at our map.

    Download the campus map
  • The Solent structure

    The University is made up of six academic departments, Warsash Maritime School, and a number of professional services departments.

    Find out more
  • Mission and strategy

    We aim to provide an excellent university education and outstanding experience for our students.

    Read our strategy

Getting started

To help you get started, we've included some of the key things you need to do or need to know to help your first few weeks working at Solent go smoothly.

Top reasons to work for Solent

  • Over 1,100 staff members supporting around 9,000 students each year.
  • Committed to promoting a diverse and inclusive workplace.
  • Career development opportunities through our career pathways for academics and professional services staff.
  • Good opportunities for internal progression, including secondments.
  • Generous holiday entitlement, plus bank holidays and Christmas closure.
  • Extensive benefits and rewards package.
  • Excellent range contributory pension schemes.
  • We encourage work-life balance and flexible working.

My development

Career pathways

We operate a career pathways framework across all roles. This is designed to deliver an excellent people experience by providing opportunities to recognise and develop the talents, skills and experience of our people, enabling them to fulfil their potential and contribute to delivering our strategy: Building an Excellent University. For more information on Solent's agile academic or professional services career pathways, visit career pathways on the staff portal.

If you have any general questions regarding pay or benefits at Solent, contact your business partner or people adviser. For specific pay and pension queries, contact a member of the payroll team.

View our current job opportunities
A lecturer working with a student

Solent buddy

At Solent, your people experience is our top priority. To ensure this, you'll be allocated a nominated Buddy on your first day to help with your introduction to Solent. Your Buddy may be a colleague or a direct manager - we'll let you know who this is on your first day.

Your Buddy will be able to assist you with:

  • introductions to your team/colleagues,
  • IT set-up,
  • if you're based on campus, finding your way around the campus,
  • ordering your staff campus card.
Two people smiling at each other

People and development

Solent University employs approximately 1,100 members of staff across our departments and professional services. People and Development's mission is to facilitate a culture that supports people to aspire to, and deliver, excellence.

We recognise that the way people are recruited, developed, organised and managed - and, importantly, their contributions recognised and rewarded - has a direct and strong influence on organisational performance. Our core purpose is the provision of a best-in-class service to enable these key features to positively influence the University's performance.

We live by Solent's values: engagement, inclusivity, integrity, ownership, respect and teamwork.

Contact us

People and Development, A101, East Park Terrace
Tel: 023 8201 3961 ext. 3961