University Provost

Although they’re places of learning, universities are also places of business. What they market, manufacture, and sell isn’t widgets, however. It’s knowledge.

A University Provost is a Chief Academic Officer. And because education is their schools’ primary product, that makes University Provosts the academic equivalent of Product Engineers, in charge of designing and managing all facets of production, from conception to execution.

As the “boss of education,” you’re very important. In fact, as University Provost you’re typically second in command, subordinate only to the University President and the board of trustees, which appoints you to supervise your school’s academic operations, objectives, and community in the same way a Chief Financial Officer oversees a company’s finances or a Chief Information Officer its technology.

To that end, your responsibilities include: supervising the Deans of individual schools, colleges, and faculties, as well as the heads of various support functions, such as the library, registrar, and admissions office; setting academic policies; ensuring academic integrity; overseeing and approving budgets for academic departments, as well as school-sponsored research projects; reporting to the President and board of trustees regarding academic and research matters; collaborating with Deans on curriculum and program development; hiring, managing, promoting, and firing faculty and staff; and managing your school’s academic reputation via strategic planning and reporting.

As a senior university executive, you also advise on university-wide planning, policy, and operations, and act on behalf of the President when he or she is unavailable.

College campuses are self-contained universes in which planets revolve around scholars instead of suns; think of yourself as the Governor of one!