Faculty Manager

A Faculty Manager oversees the day-to-day operations and strategic delivery of academic programmes within a university, polytechnic, or higher education institution. They manage staffing, budgets, facilities, student enrolment, and quality assurance for their faculty or school, ensuring alignment with institutional policy and regulatory compliance.

Develop and implement faculty strategic plans aligned with institutional objectives and government funding requirements. Manage faculty operating budgets, including allocation of funds across departments, approval of expenditure, and financial reporting to senior leadership. Recruit, appoint, and manage academic and professional staff, including performance management and professional development planning. Oversee delivery and quality of academic programmes, including curriculum review, accreditation compliance, and assurance of learning outcomes. Ensure compliance with TEQSA (Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency) requirements for higher education providers. Manage faculty facilities, including classroom allocation, laboratory maintenance, and technology infrastructure planning. Monitor and improve student satisfaction, retention, and progression metrics across faculty programmes. Approve and process student admission, enrolment, and progression documentation in line with institutional policies.

The standard entry pathway requires a bachelor degree or higher (ABS Skill Level 1). Specific qualification requirements vary by employer and state. Some employers may accept equivalent experience. Check yourcareer.gov.au for available courses and dewr.gov.au/skills-reform/free-tafe for subsidised training options.

You'll be caught between academics who resent management and senior leadership chasing funding targets. The role demands constant firefighting: staff conflicts, budget cuts, student complaints, and regulatory changes hit simultaneously. You're also shadowed by government policy swings that reshape funding overnight, making strategic planning feel pointless. Long hours are standard, especially during enrolment peaks.

Practically all positions are in Go8 universities, regional universities, and some private higher ed providers. Remote work is rare: you need to be on campus managing people and facilities. Regional universities exist but offer fewer advancement pathways than metro institutions.

Published for ANZSCO unit group 1344, the wider group this job sits in, not for this job on its own.

This is the median for full-time employees who are not managers and are paid at the adult rate, before tax and salary sacrifice. It is a guide to what the work pays, not a wage rate.

Source: ABS Survey of Employee Earnings and Hours, May 2025, customised report.

• Conflict Resolutioncore
• Goal Setting and Planningcore
• Policy and Procedure Adherencecore
• Policy Interpretationcore
• Problem Solvingcore
• Regulatory and Legislative Awarenesscore
• Report Writingcore
• Risk Identificationcore
• Stakeholder Communicationcore
• Time Management and Prioritisationcore
• Verbal Communicationcore
• Written Communicationcore
• Cultural Awareness and Sensitivity
• Feedback Collection and Actioning
• Inclusive Practice
• Microsoft Office Suite Proficiency
• Negotiation
• Process Improvement Identification
• Quality Assurance Monitoring
• Record Management
• Reporting and Analytics
• Research and Analysis

• ABS OSCA 2024, occupation definition and task statements
• ABS Survey of Employee Earnings and Hours, May 2025, customised report.
• ABS, 2021 Census of Population and Housing based on usual place of residence (Custom Report). OSCA Experimental Estimates.

Role data is drawn from official Australian Government sources, and each figure names where it comes from. Where a role is not in the ABS classification, the page shows no government figures for it. Data may not reflect every local variation.

Where our numbers come from.

Last updated: 30 October 2026