When choosing an online master’s degree, it’s important to carefully consider your future career interests. While a master’s in Higher Education is a specialized education degree, you’ll have multiple career options to consider once you have your degree, whether you’re looking for a brand-new career or you want to advance your current career. With a Higher Ed degree, you’ll be well prepared for a career in many different higher education settings and you’ll have a degree that offers a solid foundation for a doctorate in higher education. If you’re considering an online master’s degree in Higher Education, the following are a few of the career options you may want to consider:
Student Services Dean
Student services deans work to oversee a student services center for a campus and will take action and coordinate programs that are consistent with the strategic objectives and mission of the school. This may include working on new student orientation, academic advising, student appeals, judicial affairs, and student retention. This job may involve training faculty and staff members as well as the maintenance and development of staff guidance, higher education administration, campus recruiting, and student counseling. Along with your Higher Ed degree, you’ll also need to have great time management, conflict resolution, and multitasking skills as well as the ability to deal with diverse populations and work independently.
Student Engagement Outreach
This job involves analyzing enrollment and engagement data to determine outcome statistics, making it possible to determine student, teaching, and program trends and success rates. This data can be used to write performance reviews, internal reports, and grant proposals. Your daily responsibilities may include supporting and hosting community events to engage a campus’s current students and potential students. You may also find yourself collaborating with community partners, civic organizations, student clubs, and academic departments.
Student Affairs
If you love the idea of being a part of the very heart of a college or university campus, you may want to consider a student affairs job. This can include working in admissions, student recreation, health and wellness, academic support, financial aid, in the registrar department, recruitment, career services, or student diversity offices. With your master’s in Higher Education, you’ll be prepared to step into entry-level jobs in any of these departments you find appealing.
Admissions Administrators
Your online Higher Ed degree may also help you pursue a career as an admissions administrator, which means you’ll be in charge of the regular implementation of customer relationship management and student intake programs. You’ll use top industry standards to build a one-on-one relationship with every applicant as you help them move through the enrollment process. You’ll be working directly with admissions counselors and enrollment representatives to improve overall applicant engagement, relationship quality, and student retention levels.
Leadership Program Administrators
If you really want to work with students who have leadership potential, this job may be perfect for you. As a leadership program administrator, you’ll work with students who want to become academic leaders. These students may go on to become student service volunteers or resident assistants, contributing to the development of a vibrant, healthy college community. With this job you’ll be responsible for leadership training, staff development in student support programs and residence halls, and program administration. It’s important to have strong communication and interpersonal skills, as well as a knowledge of residential life planning, crisis interventions, support programming, and student development theory. It may also be part of your job description to host public events for the college or take care of community outreach functions to drive student acquisition.
Teaching and Development
You may even find yourself back in the classroom after you get your higher education degree, only this time, you’ll be the one doing the teaching. A master’s degree is required to teach at the college and university level, and you may be qualified to in other areas of adult education, providing a broader, more fulfilling college experience with help in study skills, general education, student success, student leadership, and career development classes. You may also have the ability to work in a training and development programs within the private or corporate sector.
Having your master’s in Higher Education also offers other career opportunities in new student orientation, retention programs, academic advising, diversity advocates, student conduct, and faculty affairs. If you’re interested in pursuing your master’s in Higher Education online in a faith-based environment, contact ACU Online to learn more about how we can help you pursue your career goals.