Education Administrators, Postsecondary
In short: today's best AI models could do about 27% of this job's working time (projected from METR's April 2026 measurement and Epoch's November 2026 index) if the work were set up for them, and about 54% by the end of 2028 if progress keeps its long-run pace. The conversations, in-person and hands-on work, about 43% of the time, stays with people.
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.
180,470 people do this job in the US. $104,590 a year.
Reviewed on September 30, 2026: what each task is made of, and what handing it over would ask.
A typical 40-hour week
- AI could take on0 h
- A person checks AI's work11 h
- Desk work AI can't do yet12 h
- Stays with people17 h
Education Administrators, Postsecondary, now: of a 40-hour week, AI could take on 0 hours, 11 hours become checking its work, 12 hours are desk work it can't do yet, and 17 hours stay with people.
The largest pieces: Manage budgets and financial reports (about 2 h, a person checks); Direct administrative departments (about 2 h, a person checks); Establish operational policies (about 1 h, a person checks).
Estimates for a typical week of this job, if progress keeps its long-run pace, counting work the best models finish four times in five. Every task is below.
of the working time. Now is projected from METR's April 2026 measurement and Epoch's November 2026 index.
- 53%
- 4%
- 33%
- 10%
- 0%
of the work: Anthropic's measure of what people already bring to Claude at work (2025). It counts help with part of a task, so it can be higher than the share within reach.
On the chosen pace and reliability. Estimate.
Share of the working time within reach, now to 2030
Change assumptionsHide assumptionsLong-run pace, four in five
What each choice means: , , , , . Every pace starts from .
At this date and pace, models finish tasks up to 2.4 work days long four times in five.
What handing it over would take, now
The 27% within reach splits by what a model would need. The dates, pace and reliability follow the controls above. Estimates.
of the working time. The material can be handed to a model and the result handed back.
of the working time. The model has to be connected to the system the work lives in.
is conversation short enough by length. This site leaves conversation with people, so it is not in the total.
How far this has come
With GPT-4, measured in March 2023, 0% of this job's working time was within reach at . With Claude 3.7 Sonnet, measured in February 2025, 0%. With Claude Mythos Preview (early), measured in April 2026, 3%. Today's estimate: 27%.
A backcast: today's task data with the best model METR had measured by each date. It shows how fast the models have moved, not what anyone forecast at the time.
Measured use over time
Of the Claude.ai conversations Anthropic sampled and tied to a work task, 0.45% went to this job's tasks in May 2026, the 55th largest of the 447 jobs that showed up at all; 2 of its 27 tasks showed up. Within each of Anthropic's methods, never across a change: 0.053% to 0.038% (released February and March 2025); 0.056% to 0.086% (August 2025 to February 2026); 0.45% to 0.45% (April to May 2026).
Each release
| Conversations | Share | Rank | Tasks seen |
|---|---|---|---|
| Released February 2025 | 0.053% | 270 of 708 | 10 of 27 |
| Released March 2025 | 0.038% | 314 of 703 | 6 of 27 |
| The week of Aug 4, 2025 (released September 2025) | 0.056% | 231 of 655 | 5 of 27 |
| The week of Nov 13, 2025 (released January 2026) | 0.084% | 172 of 672 | 11 of 27 |
| The week of Feb 5, 2026 (released March 2026) | 0.086% | 182 of 677 | 13 of 27 |
| April 2026 (released June 2026) | 0.45% | 52 of 434 | 3 of 27 |
| May 2026 (released June 2026) | 0.45% | 55 of 447 | 2 of 27 |
Measured, not estimated: Anthropic's samples of Claude.ai conversations, each tied by a model to an O*NET task, from the Anthropic Economic Index. It says where Claude's use goes, not how much of this job's working time it covers, so it is not on the same scale as the reach above. The releases differ in their sample, their classifier and the smallest share they report (the June 2026 file rounds each task to a hundredth of a percent, so a smaller task reads as none), which is why a change of method starts a new line. At least 96% of each older release's task-tied use matched this site's tasks, and all of the newest. Claude.ai only, so use through other tools and other companies' models is not in it. Every job ranked.
Robots and the physical work
Anthropic rates almost none of this job's working time as physical work, so robots do not reach it.
Anthropic's rating, not this site's estimate: Claude Opus 5, searching the web, rated each physical O*NET task by the kind of setting in which a robot it could cite (deployed, sold or demonstrated) does most of the task, weighted by its own estimate of each task's share of the time (What work can robots do?, September 30, 2026, data CC BY 4.0; every job ranked). A robot shown somewhere is not a robot in your building: cost, setup and safety decide that. The share within reach on this page still counts no body work. The robot behind each rated task is under the task below.
What changes for the people in this job
From the task-by-task review, by the end of 2028 on the long-run pace at four in five. It says which parts of the work stay with people and which change, not whether anyone keeps a job: that depends on decisions no data set can see.
What stays with people
42% of the working time: the conversation, in-person and hands-on parts of the tasks.
- Direct administrative departments, the conversation, 8%
- Promote the university, the in-person work, 5%
- Direct and evaluate staff, the conversation, 5%
- Formulate strategic plans, the conversation, 4%
- Recruit, hire, train and terminate staff, the conversation, 3%
- Lead fundraising, the conversation, 3%
What becomes checking the machine
51% of the working time: desk work a model could do by then, in tasks where a mistake costs something or a licensed person signs. A person checks it. Another 2% is desk work that is small if wrong, which can be handed over with lighter checks.
- Formulate strategic plans, costly if wrong, 8%
- Establish operational policies, costly if wrong, 8%
- Manage budgets and financial reports, costly if wrong, 6%
- Direct administrative departments, costly if wrong, 5%
- Prepare reports on institutional data, costly if wrong, 3%
- Develop curricula, costly if wrong, 3%
What to learn
- Reviewing work you did not do yourself. The tasks under What becomes checking the machine, where a mistake costs something, stay a person's to check: spotting what a draft gets wrong is a skill of its own.
- Briefing a model and checking its drafts. About 53% of the time is documents and data, the part models reach first: writing a clear brief, giving the right material, and checking what comes back.
- The conversations. About 43% of the time is conversation and in-person work, which this site leaves with people: listening, explaining, persuading, calming.
- Dealing with people outside the organization. Customers, patients, suppliers or the public: trust with them is built by a person.
- Handling protected records. Much of the work touches protected personal records: knowing what may be shared with a model, and how, is part of the job.
Your own version of this job: read it against your job description. The headline is free; the full personal report, every task with its timeline and what to learn, is $19 (a sample).
The tasks
Sorted by . 27 tasks from .
| Task | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Formulate strategic plans for the institution.The plan written, with meetings around it.Done more than yearly by most who do it. AI observed on this task. | 14% | 1.7 work weeks1.7 work days to 4.2 work weeks | Documents 70%, conversation 30% | 1%Desk part half by Jun 2028 |
| Direct activities of administrative departments, such as admissions, registration, and career services.Mostly conversation with the department heads, plus reading and deciding.Done hourly or more by most who do it. | 13% | 5 h1.7 h to 1.7 work days | Conversation 60%, documents 40% | 32%Desk part half by now |
| Direct, coordinate, and evaluate the activities of personnel, including support staff engaged in administering academic institutions, departments, or alumni organizations.Mostly conversation with the staff, plus reading, deciding and the reviews.Done daily by most who do it. | 8% | 3.3 h1.7 h to 1.7 work days | Conversation 60%, documents 40% | 37%Desk part half by now |
| Establish operational policies and procedures and make any necessary modifications, based on analysis of operations, demographics, and other research information.Policy written from the analysis.Done more than yearly by most who do it. | 8% | 1.3 work days3.3 h to 4.2 work days | Documents 100% | 44%Half by Dec 2026 |
| Plan, administer, and control budgets, maintain financial records, and produce financial reports.Budget work on paper and in the finance system.Done more than monthly by most who do it. | 6% | 6.7 h2.5 h to 2.1 work days | Documents 60%, systems 40% | 76%Half by now |
| Recruit, hire, train, and terminate departmental personnel.Interviews and reviews in conversation, with the write-ups behind them.Done more than yearly by most who do it. | 6% | 1.7 work days4.2 h to 4.2 work days | Conversation 60%, documents 40% | 15%Desk part half by Jan 2027 |
| Promote the university by participating in community, state, and national events or meetings, and by developing partnerships with industry and secondary education institutions.Events in person and calls to build partnerships.Done more than monthly by most who do it. | 5% | 5 h1.7 h to 2.1 work days | In person 60%, conversation 40% | Stays with people |
| Develop curricula, and recommend curricula revisions and additions.Curriculum written and revised on paper.Done more than yearly by most who do it. | 3% | 3.1 work days6.7 h to 2.1 work weeks | Documents 100% | 11%Half by Oct 2027 |
| Direct and participate in institutional fundraising activities, and encourage alumni participation in such activities.Donor events in person and calls to alumni.Done more than yearly by most who do it. | 3% | 6.7 h1.7 h to 4.2 work days | Conversation 50%, in person 50% | Stays with people |
| Prepare reports on academic or institutional data.Written reports from the data.Done more than yearly by most who do it. | 3% | 6.7 h1.7 h to 2.1 work days | Documents 100% | 61%Half by now |
| Write grants to procure external funding, and supervise grant-funded projects.Writing the proposals, with calls on the funded projects.Done yearly or less by most who do it. | 3% | 2.1 work days6.7 h to 1 work week | Documents 80%, conversation 20% | 25%Desk part half by Feb 2027 |
| Participate in student recruitment, selection, and admission, making admissions recommendations when required to do so.Reading applications and making recommendations, with recruitment events and interviews in person.Done more than monthly by most who do it. | 3% | 3.3 h50 min to 1 work day | Documents 60%, in person 40% | 51%Desk part half by now |
Within reach, per task: the share of the task's time whose instances are short enough for a model to finish at the chosen date, pace and reliability. Half by: the date half of that time comes within reach. Made of: how the task's time splits among five kinds of doing. Only the documents and systems parts can count as within reach, so a task that is 30% documents can be at most 30% within reach.
Jobs that share skills with this one
From O*NET's related occupations. Within reach now and by the end of 2028, long-run pace, four in five.
- Education Administrators, Kindergarten through Secondary29% now, 57% by 2028
- Education Teachers, Postsecondary27% now, 45% by 2028
- Educational, Guidance, and Career Counselors and Advisors29% now, 32% by 2028
- Teaching Assistants, Postsecondary38% now, 41% by 2028
- Instructional Coordinators39% now, 68% by 2028
- Library Science Teachers, Postsecondary37% now, 57% by 2028
Where this job works
The industry groups that employ the most of it (BLS, May 2025).
Where the most of these jobs are
The metro areas with the most people in it (BLS, May 2025).
Questions about this job
- How much of the work of Education Administrators, Postsecondary is within reach of AI now?
- An estimated 27% of the working time is within reach of AI models now and 54% by the end of 2028, on METR's long-run pace at four in five (46% to 57% across the three paces the site shows). Within reach means a model could finish work that long at that reliability. It is not a forecast of jobs lost or of savings.
- Which tasks of Education Administrators, Postsecondary come within reach first?
- Weighted by the time each takes, the tasks with the most within reach now (projected from METR's April 2026 measurement and Epoch's November 2026 index) are: Manage budgets and financial reports (76% of the task's time now, 100% by the end of 2028); Direct administrative departments (32% of the task's time now, 40% by the end of 2028); and Establish operational policies (44% of the task's time now, 100% by the end of 2028).
- Which tasks of Education Administrators, Postsecondary stay with people?
- Tasks that are people work or body work are not counted as within reach at any date. The largest: Promote the university; Lead fundraising; and Teach courses. Together such tasks are about 14% of the working time, and the people and body parts of the other tasks stay with people too.
- What should Education Administrators, Postsecondary learn as AI takes on more of the work?
- By the job's own task-by-task review, the first things to learn are reviewing work you did not do yourself; briefing a model and checking its drafts; and the conversations. By the end of 2028 on the long-run pace at four in five, about 42% of the working time stays with people, 51% becomes checking a model's work and 2% could be handed over with lighter checks. It says which parts of the work change, never whether anyone keeps a job.
- Do people already use AI for the work of Education Administrators, Postsecondary?
- In the Claude.ai conversations Anthropic sampled for May 2026 and tied to a work task, 0.45% went to this job's tasks, the 55th largest share of the 447 jobs that showed up; 2 of its 27 tasks appeared. Anthropic's labor market measure puts the share of the job's tasks seen in real Claude use at work at 6%. These are measures of use, not of how much of the work AI could finish, and they cover Claude only.
- Can robots do the physical work of Education Administrators, Postsecondary?
- Anthropic's robot exposure rating (September 2026) finds almost none of the working time is physical work, so robots do not reach it.
- How is this estimated?
- From the 27 tasks O*NET lists for the occupation, each with an estimated length checked against GDPval and a share of the working time, reviewed one task at a time on September 30, 2026 for what each is made of (documents, business systems, conversation, in person, hands-on), and METR's measurements of how long a task the best AI models can finish, carried forward to the date from the latest, Claude Mythos Preview (early) in April 2026. Data checked November 10, 2026.
This job in your state or metro area
Embed these figures on your site
A small card with the share of working time within reach now and at the end of 2027, 2028 and 2030, the date and a link back. Free under CC BY 4.0; the card carries the credit.
Your own version of this job
The page above is the occupation. Your job is your title and what you actually do: give both, and they are read against these tasks in your browser, nothing sent anywhere. The headline is free: how much of your working time is within reach now and by the end of 2028, and how many of the tasks your description names.
The full personal report is $19, to print or save as a PDF: every task with when it comes within reach, which ones your description names, the parts of your description the task list does not cover, what stays with you, what becomes checking the machine and what to learn.