Who's leading our universities? Identifying Australia's higher education leaders

Hamish Coates, ACER
M Anderson, ACER

Abstract

Curiously, very little is known about Australia's higher education leaders even though they play a profound role in university and community life. Much can be gained from better understanding who leads our universities and how this might be best done. Recruitment processes could be finessed, different pathways into leadership could be defined, development could target specific competencies and capabilities, and promotions procedures could better reflect what the academic profession says really counts for effective leadership. To find out more about the characteristics of higher education leadership, and what really counts for effective leadership, a national survey was undertaken involving more than 500 leaders from 20 universities, more than half of Australian's universities. Funded by the Carrick Institute for Learning and Teaching in Higher Education, and led by a team from the University of Western Sydney and the Australian Council for Educational Research, this large scale empirical study seeks to: illuminate the daily realities, influences and challenges as well as the most and the least satisfying aspects of leadership roles; identify the perceived markers of effective performance in each role; identify the capabilities that leaders see as most important for effective performance; and identify the supports which may be of the most and least assistance in developing these capabilities. The initial literature review, which exposed the lack of large-scale empirical work in this area, led to the national survey to collect information from deputy vice-chancellors, pro vice-chancellors, deans, heads, directors and other academic leaders about a wide range of leader and leadership contexts, characteristics and capabilities. The findings that came out of qualitative and quantitative analyses of that information have been tested in a large number of workshops and consultations around Australia and abroad. [Author abstract, ed]