Universities, and often colleges, are typically designed around the academic faculty member, a full-time teacher and researcher who balances their time between classroom, research-based, and administrative duties. Additional types of university employers also support the teaching and research missions of the university, respectively, including contract instructors, researchers, laboratory managers, and more.

By sheer number, most of a university’s employees are not teachers or researchers. Universities and colleges are complex institutions with all of the typical business and administrative needs of any large organization, such as human resources, finance, communications, and information technology services. In addition, many careers exist uniquely at institutions of higher education such as recruitment officers, financial aid teams, community engagement specialists, academic advisors, experiential learning support staff, and much, much more.