Manager, Bursar of Student Accounts
A Manager, Bursar of Student Accounts ensures the effective management of student accounts and related financial operations, combining financial administration, compliance, and customer service in a higher education setting. This is a sample job description from Excelon Associates that you can adapt as a template for your own hire.
What does a Manager, Bursar of Student Accounts do?
The Manager, Bursar of Student Accounts is pivotal in ensuring the effective management of student accounts and related financial operations. The role demands expertise in financial administration, compliance, and customer service within a higher education environment, overseeing billing, payment processing, account reconciliation, and the policies that govern them.
It leads the student accounts team and serves as a key point of contact for students and families. It is a financial operations role within the higher education sector.
A bursar is the officer responsible for student financial accounts, including tuition billing, payments, refunds, and reconciliation. The bursar’s office is distinct from financial aid, which administers grants and loans. Professional standards for higher education finance are supported by bodies such as NACUBO.
What does the bursar manager oversee?
Key responsibilities of a Manager, Bursar of Student Accounts
- Oversee the maintenance and accuracy of all student accounts, ensuring timely billing, payment processing, and account reconciliation.
- Implement and enforce financial policies related to student accounts, including tuition and fee payments, refunds, and installment plans.
- Prepare regular financial reports for senior management and ensure compliance with institutional policies, applicable financial regulations, and external audit requirements.
- Supervise and mentor the student accounts team, fostering a culture of excellence and continuous improvement, and provide training on financial policies, systems, and service.
- Act as a primary point of contact for students, parents, and stakeholders regarding account inquiries, resolving escalated issues promptly and professionally.
- Collaborate with IT and finance teams to optimize student account management systems and processes.
- Identify and implement enhancements that improve efficiency and accuracy.
What qualifications does the role require?
- Bachelor’s degree in finance, accounting, business administration, or a related field.
- Extensive experience in financial administration, preferably within a higher education setting, with strong knowledge of financial regulations, student funding, and data protection.
- Demonstrated ability to lead and develop a team, with excellent analytical, organizational, and problem-solving skills.
- Proficiency in financial software and standard office productivity tools.
- Exceptional communication and interpersonal skills, high attention to detail, strong ethical standards, and a commitment to confidentiality.
Why is the bursar manager role important?
Accurate student accounts are central to both institutional revenue and student trust. The bursar manager protects compliance and cash flow while ensuring students and families have a clear, fair billing experience, often during financially stressful moments in a student’s life.
Because the role blends rigorous financial control with frequent student-facing service, the strongest managers are precise with the numbers and patient with the people. That balance is what keeps an institution both compliant and trusted.
A hiring note from Excelon
Strong bursar managers are valued for combining financial control discipline with genuine service instincts, a pairing that is harder to find than it sounds. Through our higher education practice, we look for finance leaders with higher education billing experience and a track record of clean audits and calm handling of difficult account conversations.
The strongest managers are precise with the numbers and patient with the people.
Related sample job descriptions
Manager, Bursar of Student Accounts: frequently asked questions
What does a Manager, Bursar of Student Accounts do?
This role oversees the accuracy and management of all student accounts, including billing, payment processing, and reconciliation. It enforces financial policies, ensures compliance, leads the student accounts team, and serves as a primary contact for account inquiries.
What qualifications does the role require?
This sample role requires a bachelor’s degree in finance, accounting, business administration, or a related field, extensive financial administration experience (preferably in higher education), and strong knowledge of financial regulations, student funding, and data protection.
What is a bursar?
A bursar is the university officer responsible for student financial accounts, including tuition billing, payments, refunds, and account reconciliation. The bursar’s office is distinct from financial aid, which administers grants and loans.
How is this different from financial aid?
The bursar’s office manages what students owe and pay, such as tuition billing and account balances, while the financial aid office manages the aid students receive. The two work closely but handle different sides of student finance.
Why is this role important?
Accurate student accounts are central to both institutional revenue and student trust. The bursar manager protects compliance and cash flow while ensuring students and families have a clear, fair billing experience.
Hiring a Manager, Bursar of Student Accounts?
Excelon Associates places bursars, student finance leaders, and higher education administrators at colleges and universities across the United States through our higher education recruitment practice. Retained executive search since 2007, headquartered in Asheville, NC, with offices in Boca Raton and Delray Beach, FL.
More Sample Job Descriptions
Templates you can adapt for your own roles.