International Higher Education, Spring 2003

International Perspectives on Leadership Development

The United Kingdom has embarked on a series of reviews of its higher education system over the last six years in order to achieve reforms that some see as necessary and others as contested. The most recent government report was published in February 2003. The competitiveness of the higher education sector and the institutions within it are a major theme within this latest strategy document. The issue of competitiveness is addressed, as one would expect, in chapters on research, teaching, knowledge transfer, access, and participation. However, what is of particular interest for this article is the proposal to establish a "Leadership Foundation for Higher Education" with a specific role to enhance the competitiveness, efficiency, and effectiveness of U.K. higher education. An important task of the foundation, in serving senior institutional leaders, managers, and governors, would be to reach out internationally and across sectors so that individuals, institutions, and professional networks can collaborate, learn, and exchange good practice. Encouraging such permeability across the boundaries of the academy acknowledges the changes that are emerging in an increasingly "borderless world."

Some countries have long traditions of training and development for the academic leaders and professional administrators and managers who govern their higher education institutions, whether at departmental or institutional levels. The United States probably leads the way in the quantity and variety of programs on offer with some (such as the Fellows Program of the American Council on Education) having a track record that extends over 30 or more years. In other countries, too, particular institutions have carved a niche in higher education management research and development; and interuniversity bodies (such as the Australian and South African Vice-Chancellors' Committees or the European Association of Universities) have designed and mounted programs to meet management training and development needs. However, the concept and shape of the United Kingdom's Leadership Foundation appears to be somewhat different from the leadership and management development approaches in other parts of the world, so its features may be of interest beyond the United Kingdom.

The Leadership Foundation is conceived primarily as an "intelligent commissioner and broker" of developmental opportunities for senior staff, accessing and collaborating with the leading thinkers and practitioners from across the world. The outline plan suggests that this foundation should have four core areas of activity: individual development; institutional capacity building; a "futures lab"; and acting as champion and coordinator for leadership, governance, and management development in the higher education sector. These four core areas are in effect overarching themes, each of which has a number of more focused strands of work.

The individual development strand includes flagship programs (for different levels of leadership, management, and governance); brokerage of exchanges, visits, and international projects; and more personalized development opportunities such as mentoring or action learning. Institutional capacity building includes benchmarking exercises, twinning arrangements, an awards program and the acquisition or design of relevant learning resources such as case studies and simulations. The futures lab encompasses environmental scanning, research, and spaces for policy debate on the "modernizing agenda" for higher education. Each of these strands of work must be designed with international and cross-sector possibilities in mind.

The fourth strand, acting as champion and coordinator, is perhaps geared more particularly to the U.K. political context, although other higher education systems may still find some resonance with their own situation. This strand commits the Leadership Foundation to raising the public and political profile of higher education leadership and management practice, not only as a worthwhile field of research but also as a distinct area of practice that has lessons to offer as well as to learn across public and private sectors. The issue of coordination addresses the need for synergy and cross-fertilization between the disparate initiatives that exist in the United Kingdom to enhance management practice in higher education.

The Leadership Foundation is at an early stage of development and there is much work to be done to make the concept operational. However, at a time when international and cross-sector collaborations are growing, exciting possibilities lie ahead. This kind of leadership and management development initiative--which is likely to involve a wide range of activities--can be used to promote and enhance collaborations and can also be used as a space for learning about the realities of cross-cultural and cross-sectoral collaborative management. Consortium arrangements such as the Worldwide University Network or Cardean University are growing--and there are already examples of success and failure. Is it not timely and opportune to use international leadership and management development opportunities as vehicles to discuss the lessons of experience and debate and develop the possibilities for tomorrow?

Author's note: Comments on this article and ideas for international collaborations in the territory of leadership, management, and governance of higher education are welcomed. The author can be contacted at the e-mail address above.