Education administrator

Education administrator job description: Typical employers | Qualifications and training | Key skills | Useful links | Find jobs

Education administrators work within the central administrative (Academic Registrars) department and for individual faculties, departments and sections of universities and colleges of further and higher education. Opportunities also arise within private, tertiary and specialist training colleges. There is no ‘typical' job profile: administrators may have student recruitment, funding, quality assurance, marketing, or public relations roles, or they may be responsible for budgetary/financial administration, project management or human resources management. Many work in a general capacity - undertaking tasks from all of these areas.

Typical responsibilities of the job include:

• recruiting, training and managing staff
• handling correspondence
• organising and servicing committee and academic board meetings (producing agendas, taking minutes etc.)
• researching and writing reports
• preparing statistics
• processing invoices
• purchasing equipment/other goods
• liaising with potential students, other institutions, government departments and external organisations
• helping with course approval and evaluation activities
• formulating and implementing regulations/policies
• timetabling
• administering and co-ordinating student recruitment, examinations and assessment activities.

The job can be busy at key times in the academic year, when some long hours may be necessary. There are good opportunities for career progression via promotion into senior administrative, managerial and project management roles, or transfer/secondment between departments.

There is strong competition for both entrance level and permanent jobs. Vacancies are advertised via the internet, by careers services, in local and national newspapers (particularly The Guardian and The Independent), in the Times Educational Supplement (TES) and in The Times Higher Educational Supplement (THES).

Qualifications and training required

A good HND or honours degree in any subject is generally required for entry into the profession. Qualifications in education, English, psychology, sociology, business studies, statistics, IT, administration or management may be beneficial. Previous FE/HE education, office or commercial work experience can also be helpful.

Key skills for education administrators

Good interpersonal, IT, organisational, time management, negotiation and communication skills are essential.