The Datum Report

Occupation 2322 · Professional occupations

Education managers

Half of full-time education managers in the UK earn more than £46,581 a year, and half earn less.

Education managers plan, organise, direct and co-ordinate the administration, support systems and activities that facilitate the effective running of a school, university, college or other educational establishment.

How people enter it

Job holders will usually hold a degree, and some academic posts will require a degree. Significant professional experience will be needed for some roles. Relevant vocational qualifications at up to level 4 are also available. A DBS check may be required.

What the work involves

• considers staffing, financial, material and other short- and long-term needs
• provides administrative support to the academic team
• leads or contributes to decision making processes regarding curricula, budgetary, disciplinary and other matters
• controls administrative aspects of student admission, registration and graduation
• acts as secretary to statutory and other bodies/committees associated with the educational establishment
• drafts and interprets regulations, deals with queries and complaints procedures and coordinates and maintains quality assurance procedures
• organises examinations, invigilation and any security procedures required
• assists with recruitment, public relations and marketing activities
• designs and implements methods of assessing the performance of students, co-ordinates and undertakes the evaluation of assessments and awards grades of merit based upon performance

Also called

Business school manager · Dean (further education) · Provost (higher education, university) · Registrar (educational establishments) · Vice chancellor (university)

What it pays

How pay has changed

Median gross annual pay for education managers, full-time employees, 2023 to 2025. Each point is that year's ASHE April snapshot as published — revisions are not backfilled into earlier years, and a year ONS withheld is a gap rather than a joined line.

ONS, ASHE Table 14 - occupation by four-digit SOC (national). Table

Year-on-year change

The change from each year to the next, in per cent, computed from the figures in the chart above — so the two cannot disagree.

ONS, ASHE Table 14 - occupation by four-digit SOC (national). Table

Pay by region

Median gross annual pay for full-time employees, ranked, against the UK figure. 6 of 11 regions are published: ONS withholds a cell where the survey sample cannot support it, and those are shown as gaps rather than dropped — an absent region is not a region without the work in it.

ONS, ASHE Table 14 - occupation by four-digit SOC (national). Period 2025. Table

Every regional figure

ONS does not publish occupational pay below region. Cells the survey could not support are shown as withheld, with its reason — adding a region split to a specific occupation leaves roughly a tenth of cells publishable.

Common questions

Classified alongside this

Early education and childcare services managers · Education advisers and school inspectors · Head teachers and principals · Other educational professionals n.e.c