The Academic Manager's Survival Manual

You were promoted because you're an excellent teacher, but nobody gave you the manual for what comes next. Here it is.

This is a practical, no-filler guide to your first 90 days as an Academic Manager. It's built from 15 years of senior academic leadership at language schools and university programmes in Vietnam and the Gulf, and every module draws on situations I faced in real schools.

What's inside

Nineteen modules across three phases, so you know what to focus on and when:

• Phase One: Survival (Weeks 1–4). The identity shift from teacher to manager, auditing what you've inherited, triaging constant urgency, timetabling, observations, difficult conversations and briefing senior leadership.
• Phase Two: Building Your Systems (Weeks 5–8). QA and accreditation, safeguarding, student welfare, induction, staff culture, placement testing, recruitment and working with HR.
• Phase Three: Growing Into Leadership (Weeks 9–12). Budget literacy, data-informed decisions, curriculum management and working with admissions without compromising quality.

What makes it different

Real examples, not theory. Each module includes real situations: moving 800 students online in days, changing a timetable nobody had touched in ten years, preparing for accreditation.

Short and usable. Read a module on your break and use it the same afternoon.

Honest about its limits. Modules touching on employment law and safeguarding are clearly flagged as frameworks, not legal advice.

Format: 54-page PDF, read on screen or print.