---
title: "Education Administrator, Postsecondary"
description: "Plan, direct, or coordinate student instruction, administration, and services, as well as other research and educational activities, at postsecondary…"
canonical: "https://nuecareer.com/careers/education-administrator-postsecondary"
last-updated: "2026-08-23T15:56:39.581Z"
---

# Education Administrator, Postsecondary

**Category:** Management · **SOC code:** 11-9033 · **O\*NET-SOC code:** 11-9033.00

Plan, direct, or coordinate student instruction, administration, and services, as well as other research and educational activities, at postsecondary institutions, including universities, colleges, and junior and community colleges.

Also advertised as: Academic Affairs Vice President (Academic Affairs VP); Academic Dean; Admissions Director; College President; Dean; Financial Aid Director; Institutional Research Director; Provost.

## At a glance

- **Median annual wage:** $104,590 (BLS OEWS, May 2025)
- **Median hourly wage:** $50.29/hr
- **Wage range (10th–90th percentile):** $64,560 to $215,620, with the middle half between $80,870 and $144,370
- **Total US employment:** 180,470
- **Typical entry education:** Master's
- **Preparation required:** Considerable preparation — O\*NET rates this "Job Zone Five: Extensive Preparation Needed"
- **Projected growth:** +1.7% over 2024–2034 (BLS EP, 2024–2034)
- **Annual job openings:** 15,100 openings a year
- **AI-resilience score:** 29/100 — a NueCareer heuristic over O\*NET work activities and context, not a BLS or O\*NET figure

## Pay

National wage distribution, BLS OEWS, May 2025, across 180,470 US jobs.

| Percentile | Annual wage |
| --- | --- |
| 10th | $64,560 |
| 25th | $80,870 |
| 50th (median) | $104,590 |
| 75th | $144,370 |
| 90th | $215,620 |
| Mean (average) | $126,540 |

### Pay by state

The 15 highest-paying states, by median annual wage. The cost-of-living-adjusted column divides the state median by that state's BEA Regional Price Parity, so the columns answer different questions: the first is what the job pays there, the second is what that pay buys there.

| State | Median annual wage | Cost-of-living adjusted | Employment |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| NY | $139,640 | $129,391 | 7,280 |
| NJ | $131,570 | $120,923 | 4,100 |
| MA | $128,970 | $121,949 | 9,120 |
| DE | $128,570 | $128,817 | 360 |
| WY | $127,960 | $138,050 | 120 |
| WA | $127,630 | $119,266 | 2,140 |
| SD | $126,160 | $142,415 | 240 |
| CA | $125,460 | $113,313 | 14,870 |
| WI | $124,960 | $132,802 | 1,190 |
| CT | $123,190 | $118,898 | 2,100 |
| VA | $120,840 | $119,520 | Not published by BLS |
| OR | $120,110 | $116,204 | 2,790 |
| MD | $118,550 | $112,949 | Not published by BLS |
| CO | $118,440 | $114,932 | 1,770 |
| KY | $114,310 | $126,787 | 890 |

38 more states with published wage data are omitted here. The full table for all 53 states is at https://nuecareer.com/careers/education-administrator-postsecondary/salary-by-state, or as JSON at https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/education-administrator-postsecondary.

## Outlook

BLS projects employment to move from 226,600 in the 2024–2034 base year to 230,500 by the end of the cycle — a gain of 4,000 jobs, or +1.7%. Slower than average: 1.7% against 3.1% projected for all occupations over the same cycle. About 15,100 openings a year are expected on average, counting openings from growth as well as from workers leaving the occupation permanently. Source: BLS EP, 2024–2034.

## How to get in

- **Typical entry education:** Master's degree (BLS Employment Projections).
- **Preparation level:** Considerable preparation — O\*NET's preparation band for this occupation is "Job Zone Five: Extensive Preparation Needed".
- **Related work experience typically required:** Less than 5 years.
- **Typical on-the-job training:** None.

### Education people in this job actually hold

O\*NET surveys incumbents, so this distribution describes who is in the job today and can differ from the BLS entry requirement above.

| Education level | Share of workers |
| --- | --- |
| Master's Degree | 47.9% |
| Doctoral Degree | 37.2% |
| Bachelor's Degree | 7.6% |
| Post-Doctoral Training | 7.2% |

## What the work involves

- Participate in faculty and college committee activities.
- Establish operational policies and procedures and make any necessary modifications, based on analysis of operations, demographics, and other research information.
- Prepare reports on academic or institutional data.
- Promote the university by participating in community, state, and national events or meetings, and by developing partnerships with industry and secondary education institutions.
- Represent institutions at community and campus events, in meetings with other institution personnel, and during accreditation processes.
- Design or use assessments to monitor student learning outcomes.
- Plan, administer, and control budgets, maintain financial records, and produce financial reports.
- Recruit, hire, train, and terminate departmental personnel.

## Skills and knowledge

### Essential skills

- Reading Comprehension — importance 4.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Critical Thinking — importance 4.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Listening — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Writing — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Speaking — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Monitoring — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Learning — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Learning Strategies — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Transferable skills

These are the skills that carry into other occupations, and they drive the related-occupation and career-change rankings on this site.

- Instructing — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Time Management — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Complex Problem Solving — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Judgment and Decision Making — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Social Perceptiveness — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Management of Personnel Resources — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Coordination — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Persuasion — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Knowledge areas

- English Language — importance 4.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Administration and Management — importance 4.2 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Education and Training — importance 4.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Customer and Personal Service — importance 4.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Personnel and Human Resources — importance 3.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Administrative — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Abilities

- Written Comprehension — importance 4.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Oral Expression — importance 4.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Written Expression — importance 4.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Problem Sensitivity — importance 4.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Oral Comprehension — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Inductive Reasoning — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

## Who it suits

O\*NET rates every occupation on the six Holland (RIASEC) interest areas, on a 1–7 scale. This occupation's strongest areas are Social (S), Enterprising (E), Conventional (C).

| Interest area | Score (1–7) |
| --- | --- |
| S — Social | 5.64 |
| E — Enterprising | 5.30 |
| C — Conventional | 4.91 |
| I — Investigative | 3.83 |
| A — Artistic | 2.81 |
| R — Realistic | 1.00 |

### Personality fit

These scores are **derived by NueCareer**, not published by any government agency: they are cosine similarities between a personality type's trait profile and this occupation's O\*NET interest and work-style ratings, expressed 0–100. Treat them as a starting point for exploration, not as evidence that a type belongs in a job.

| Type | Fit score (0–100) |
| --- | --- |
| ENFJ | 77.3 |
| ESFJ | 74.8 |
| ESFP | 63.1 |
| ENTJ | 60.8 |
| ENFP | 59.5 |

Best-fitting types: ENFJ, ESFJ.

## Related occupations

O\*NET's primary related occupations, in its own ranked order.

- [Education Administrator, Kindergarten through Secondary](https://nuecareer.com/careers/education-administrator-kindergarten-through-secondary) — median $105,870
- [Education Teacher, Postsecondary](https://nuecareer.com/careers/education-teacher-postsecondary) — median $75,350
- [Educational, Guidance, and Career Counselor and Advisor](https://nuecareer.com/careers/educational-guidance-and-career-counselor-and-advisor) — median $64,330
- [Teaching Assistant, Postsecondary](https://nuecareer.com/careers/teaching-assistant-postsecondary) — median $42,910
- [Instructional Coordinator](https://nuecareer.com/careers/instructional-coordinator) — median $77,440
- [Library Science Teacher, Postsecondary](https://nuecareer.com/careers/library-science-teacher-postsecondary) — median $80,340
- [Social and Community Service Manager](https://nuecareer.com/careers/social-and-community-service-manager) — median $80,390
- [Training and Development Manager](https://nuecareer.com/careers/training-and-development-manager) — median $133,000
- [Education and Childcare Administrator, Preschool and Daycare](https://nuecareer.com/careers/education-and-childcare-administrator-preschool-and-daycare) — median $59,300
- [Management Analyst](https://nuecareer.com/careers/management-analyst) — median $101,860

## Sources

- **O\*NET** — O\*NET 30.3 Database, May 2026. https://www.onetcenter.org/database.html
- **BLS OEWS** — BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025. https://www.bls.gov/oes/
- **BLS EP** — BLS Employment Projections, Table 1.2, 2024–2034. https://www.bls.gov/emp/
- **BLS OOH** — BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook, 2024–2034 edition. https://www.bls.gov/ooh/
- **BEA RPP** — BEA Regional Price Parities by State, 2024. https://www.bea.gov/data/prices-inflation/regional-price-parities-state-and-metro-area

---

This bank includes information from the O\*NET 30.3 Database by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA). Used under the CC BY 4.0 license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). O\*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA. NueCareer has transformed the data by joining it to BLS wage and projection data and deriving facet, personality-fit and AI-resilience scores. BLS and BEA data are public domain (17 U.S.C. §105).

O\*NET content is used under [CC BY 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). How these figures are sourced and derived: https://nuecareer.com/careers/methodology

JSON representation of this page: https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/education-administrator-postsecondary