Education Administrators, Postsecondary
Management
At a college, university, or community college, the work is directing a department or set of student services rather than a single classroom. That can mean designing assessments of what students learned, advising on course choices, graduation progress, and career next steps, and helping faculty with teaching, orientation, transcripts, or event schedules. Other duties include hiring, evaluating, and dismissing staff, writing budgets and financial reports, setting operating policies, and drafting longer-term plans for the institution. Suits people who like mixing student advising with budget and policy work, and who can track results in writing and in meetings.
Typical education: Master’s Degree
Annual Median Wage in Field (2025)
$104'590
Median Wage Market Position
$104'590
What you might do
- Design assessments to track student learning outcomes
- Advise students on courses, graduation, and careers
- Hire, train, and dismiss departmental staff
- Control budgets and produce financial reports
- Set campus policies using enrollment and operations data
- Help faculty with scheduling, orientation, and transcripts
Skills that matter
- Advise students on courses and graduation
- Assessments that show what students learned
- Department hiring, training, and dismissals
- Budgets, records, and financial reports
- Strategic plans for the college or university
- Help faculty with scheduling and orientation
AI & the future of this role
Budget modeling, enrollment forecasting, and routine student-service coordination could absorb more of the administrative load. Leadership and academic judgment still count, yet much of the work sits in systems where automation tends to scale faster.
Does Education Administrators, Postsecondary fit your values?
Take the free LostInCareer assessment to see personalized matches based on your core values—not just a personality label.
Related careers
Includes O*NET® 30.3 Database information by USDOL/ETA under CC BY 4.0; modified by LostInCareer. Wage/outlook from BLS. Attribution details