Bursar and business manager salary survey

According to an ASCL survey, the average salary of ASCL's bursar and business manager members is £41,850. Salaries range from £17,000 at the low end to a high of £84,000, with independent schools and colleges primarily sitting at the top end of the table.

Bursar and business manager annual pay

A total of 263 ASCL members responded to the postal survey in December.

It appears that gender does make a difference to salary. The average female salary is £38,230; the average for men is £46,440. Respondents in the south-east are paid the highest salary average, at £43,640; the East Midlands, north-east and Yorkshire are the lowest at an average of around £35,800.

However, the strongest correlation is with the total number of staff employed in the institution - the more staff, the higher the pay. Perhaps surprisingly, there is no significant correlation with the number of students.

Other factors which have a statistically significant correlation are, in decreasing order of strength: gender, age and qualifications. The correlation of salary with time in post and number of years as a bursar are relatively weak.

Half of respondents had been bursars or business managers for less than seven years and just over half (52 per cent) had been in their current post less than five years. A total of 43 per cent are aged 41-50 and 37 per cent are 51-60.

Just over half (52 per cent) of respondents are in 11-18 schools and 26 per cent are in 11-16 schools. About 10 per cent are in FE colleges and 13 per cent independent schools.

The highest level qualification possessed by 38 per cent is a first degree. Another 26 per cent also have post graduate degrees.

Respondents overwhelmingly commented that they were paid less than leadership team colleagues with similar responsibility. In several cases the head wanted to pay them on the leadership spine but met with resistance from the local authority.

ASCL will use these findings in its further discussions over the status of non-teachers on the senior leadership team (SLT) and to continue to push for non-teaching SLT members to be paid on the leadership spine, each member having an appropriate five-point scale depending on job weight.