Higher education administrator

Higher education administrators undertake a wide variety of supportive, administrative, secretarial, financial and human resources tasks within HE institutions.

There are more than 260 UK higher education institutions.

What it involves

HE administrators work within both the central administrative (Academic Registrars') department and for individual faculties of universities and other higher education establishments. 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
financial/budgetary administration
handling correspondence
organising and servicing committee meetings (producing agendas, taking minutes etc.)
researching and writing reports
preparing statistics
liaising with external organisations
formulating and implementing regulations
timetabling
administering and co-ordinating student recruitment, examinations and assessment activities.

The job can be stressful at busy times of 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. Higher education establishments also generally offer excellent and flexible working conditions.

What's required

A good honours degree in any subject is required for entry into the profession. Qualifications in English, business, IT, languages, information science, administration and management may be beneficial. Previous higher education, office or commercial work experience can also be helpful, although not essential. It is, however, vital to possess good interpersonal, teamworking, IT, organisational, time management, negotiation and communication skills.

Where to find out more

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