Navigating the University Ecosystem: A Guide to Staff Career Pathways

The complex ecosystems of universities can be overwhelming for someone trying to apply for a staff position, and even for those already working in higher education. For someone trying to enter the field, the default approach may be to focus on the most well-known or familiar units or departments from one’s personal experience or knowledge. But this may be to someone’s detriment and limit their possibilities, especially if they have personal considerations and their search is bound to institutions that meet their requirements.

With this article, we explain some of the major units often found at the university and college level. We hope that doing so provides some clarity to the complex systems of institutions and gives readers insights into the path they may want to pursue in higher education.

University-Level

The first type of organizational structure is university-facing or offices or units that serve the entire campus. With growing student populations and increasing roles and responsibilities, many central offices exist to provide a unified approach to administer business, operations, and services. Here are three main functional areas with examples from HigherEdJobs’ “Administrative Positions.”

Academic Affairs

Academic affairs, which supports the central mission to enhance research and teaching for many institutions, is often managed centrally. Key areas within academic affairs include:

Faculty affairs Curriculum design Instructional technology and design Assessment, accreditation, and compliance Sponsored programs, grants, and contracts

These are common functions of the provost’s office, institutional research or effectiveness, and vice president (or provost) of research.

Student Affairs

Student affairs has evolved to be its own category to prioritize the holistic development of students and their needs on and off campus. The following areas also often fall under the purview of student affairs:

Admissions and enrollment Career development and services Counseling and psychological services Residence life and housing

Operations

Newer and often less-known functions also exist for those seeking opportunities in higher education who don’t necessarily have experience working with student or academic affairs. Institutions, after all, are complicated systems like organizations in non-profit, for-profit, and government sectors, which often serve as employers of local impact and hire individuals who bring skills to help maintain and operate the university. Such areas include:

Human resources Legal affairs Facilities Communications, marketing, and public affairs Computer and information technology Business and financial services

For those who believe in the mission of higher education, these are great areas to explore, whether someone is trying to break into higher education or making a career pivot from within.

Central offices often have a 30,000-foot view and closely align with the institution’s strategic plans. Therefore, these units can be great options for those who enjoy taking on issues or challenges that cut across different parts of the campus or liaising with local units to achieve institutional goals and projects.

College-Level

Now that we have explored some of the central areas, we will highlight additional offices and units that might exist at more local levels. Some of the more common entities are colleges based on disciplinary areas (i.e., college of science, college of arts and humanities, college of engineering, etc.). Colleges often have distinct identities based on teaching and research outputs, and increasingly, mission and vision when competing with other academic programs.

Because of this diversification, it is important to stress that there is no universal organizational chart for colleges, and many of them vary even within the same institution. Understanding these nuances may help you identify potential career paths you were previously unaware of. To present a simplified version of a college structure, we want to highlight two predominant areas:

The Dean’s Office

A dean leads the overall function of the college, guiding its direction and vision in alignment with the university’s strategic goals. Their office includes sub-units focused on key functions such as human resources, information technology, marketing and communications, external relations, business/finance, operations, research and awards, advising, student services, and development/fundraising. In many ways, a college’s structure mirrors the university level but focuses distinctively on college-central affairs. Because of the diversity of functions, colleges are often a great place to explore if you’re considering work in higher education but want to have a more focused population of people you support. For instance, a candidate may enjoy working with STEM students if they have relevant experience in that area.

Academic Departments

A college will be composed of individual academic departments. These units will have their own functional areas, administrative and academic, that feed upward into the overall running of the college. As the organizational structure becomes smaller, functions and roles to support departments are often combined, since departments have less resources compared to the provost’s or the dean’s office. For instance, a department-level administrator may work directly with faculty on pre- or post-award management for research grants, while also helping the department chair with academic affairs-related projects, such as data analysis and curriculum development. Since the scope of projects is often smaller in a department, a candidate with multiple professional interests can be great for department-level administration, especially if they enjoy getting to know everyone in a department well.

We hope you are pleasantly surprised to see how roles and responsibilities can exist in many organizational areas within higher education, be it more central, like the university level, or more local, at the college or department level. While some roles may be more common in central offices, one can often find roles with similar responsibilities at a local level, and vice versa. Such realities speak to the evolution of higher education as a system but also can make it difficult for anyone trying to navigate career transitions without knowing how the ecosystem works.

The goal of this piece is to demystify the university environment and encourage readers to gain knowledge and get creative when applying to jobs at an institution, especially those with geographical preferences. In our next article, we will also share our own stories and strengths-based strategies to help candidates stand out during the application and interview phases.