Part-Time Jobs in Egham: Your Guide to University Roles
Egham is a small town in Surrey, roughly 20 miles west of central London, and its job market is shaped substantially by one institution: Royal Holloway, University of London. If you are searching for part-time jobs in Egham, the university is the obvious place to start. It employs hundreds of part-time staff across teaching, research, administration and professional services, and it recruits throughout the year. This guide explains what kinds of roles are available, what they typically pay, and how to put together a strong application.
Royal Holloway: The Dominant Employer in Egham
Royal Holloway is a research-intensive university with roughly 10,000 students and a distinctive Victorian campus at Founder's Building. It is a college of the University of London and covers a broad range of disciplines, from the sciences and engineering to the arts, humanities and social sciences.
For part-time workers, this breadth matters. The university needs staff across almost every function, and many of those roles are filled on a fractional or hourly-paid basis. Whether you are a local resident looking for flexible work, a PhD student seeking teaching experience, or a professional services worker who wants to reduce hours, there are likely to be relevant opportunities at any given time.
The nearby towns of Staines-upon-Thames, Egham and Virginia Water also have commuter links to London, so some people combine Royal Holloway work with roles elsewhere. But for those who want to stay local, the university is the anchor employer.
Types of Part-Time Roles Available
Teaching and Academic Roles
The most common part-time academic roles at Royal Holloway, as at most universities, fall into a few categories:
- Hourly-paid lecturers and tutors. These roles involve delivering seminars, tutorials or occasional lectures, usually paid per hour of contact time. They are common in arts, humanities and social science departments.
- Graduate teaching assistants (GTAs). PhD students are often offered part-time teaching work funded through their studentship or paid separately. GTAs typically assist with seminars, mark essays and support module leads.
- Visiting lecturers. Practitioners from relevant industries are sometimes recruited to teach specific modules part-time, particularly in business, law, media and creative subjects.
If you are interested in part-time teaching work, it helps to look at the university's subject areas and identify departments that match your expertise. Royal Holloway has strong departments in music, drama, geography, psychology, computer science and several other fields. Browse teaching jobs on UniJobs to see what is currently listed across the sector.
Research Roles
Research assistants and project workers are frequently hired on fixed-term, part-time contracts at Royal Holloway. These roles are usually attached to specific funded projects and can be anything from a few months to several years. They are common in science, social science and health-related departments.
If you have a postgraduate degree and research experience, a part-time research role can be an excellent way to stay active in academia while managing other commitments. See our guide to research assistant jobs for a detailed breakdown of what these positions involve and how to apply.
You can also search research jobs listed by universities across the UK to get a sense of what part-time research work looks like and what qualifications employers typically ask for.
Professional Services Roles
Universities are large, complex organisations, and Royal Holloway is no exception. The professional services teams cover:
- Student support and wellbeing
- Library and information services
- IT and digital services
- Registry and admissions
- Marketing and communications
- Estates and facilities management
- Finance and HR
Many of these functions have part-time roles available, particularly in areas like library services, student-facing support, and administrative coordination. Roles at this level are usually graded using the university's pay spine, and part-time staff are paid pro rata.
Exam Invigilation
Exam invigilation is one of the most consistently available part-time roles at any university. Invigilators are needed for January and May/June exam periods, and often for resits in August. The work is casual and sessional, making it genuinely flexible. For a thorough overview of what the role involves, see our exam invigilator jobs guide.
Pay and Contracts at Royal Holloway
Pay at Royal Holloway follows the nationally agreed pay spine used by most pre-92 universities in the UK, negotiated through the Universities and Colleges Employers Association (UCEA). Exact rates vary by grade and are updated following national pay negotiations each year.
As a general guide:
- Professional services and administrative roles typically fall between Grade 3 and Grade 6, with salaries (pro rata for part-time staff) ranging from roughly £22,000 to £38,000 full-time equivalent, depending on the role and experience.
- Early-career academic and research roles such as research assistants or GTAs are usually graded at Grade 5 or 6.
- Hourly-paid teaching is paid per contact hour at a rate set by the institution. This varies, but at research-intensive universities it tends to sit above the National Living Wage and often reflects the academic pay spine.
Always check the specific salary details in the job advert. Part-time roles at universities must clearly state the pro rata salary or the hourly rate.
Where to Find Part-Time Jobs in Egham
The main routes to finding part-time university work in Egham are:
- Royal Holloway's own jobs page. The university advertises all vacancies on its HR website. You can filter by contract type and hours to find part-time listings.
- UniJobs. Search all academic jobs and filter by location. Egham and Surrey-area roles appear here regularly.
- Department-level contacts. For casual teaching and tutoring roles, direct contact with a department is often effective. If you have a speculative interest in teaching in a particular subject area, emailing the departmental administrator or relevant course coordinator is worth doing. Having an informal conversation before formally applying can be useful, and our guide on how to have an informal chat before applying explains how to approach this well.
- NHS and other public sector employers. Egham is close to Ashford and St Peter's Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, which employs clinical educators and research staff, sometimes on part-time arrangements.
Applying for Part-Time University Roles
University job applications in the UK almost always require a formal application form, though some roles also ask for a CV and covering letter. Key things to bear in mind:
- Address the person specification directly. Each job advert includes a person specification listing essential and desirable criteria. Go through each point and give concrete evidence that you meet it.
- Be clear about your availability. If you are applying for a part-time role because you have other commitments (another job, study, caring responsibilities), you do not need to explain all of that in your application. Simply confirm you are available for the hours advertised.
- Tailor each application. Even for sessional or casual roles, a generic application tends to be weaker than one that shows you understand the department and its students.
- Include referees who can speak to relevant experience. For academic roles, this usually means academic supervisors or previous line managers in a teaching or research context.
If the role is a part-time lectureship or teaching post, prepare for the possibility of a short teaching observation or presentation as part of the interview process. This is standard practice at most universities for any teaching-facing role, even at fractional or hourly-paid level.
Royal Holloway draws applicants from across the London commuter belt, so competition for desirable part-time roles can be reasonably strong. A well-prepared application that directly addresses the job description gives you the best chance of being shortlisted.
