University leadership

In response to the unprecedented threat posed by climate change, the UBC Climate Action Plan 2030 puts the University of British Columbia (UBC) on an accelerated path to net zero emissions for buildings and energy supply, as well as significantly reducing greenhouse gas emissions over the next 15&nbsp;years – aligning with the Paris Agreement goal of limiting the global temperature rise&nbsp;to&nbsp;1.5°C.The UN secretary general declared a “code red” for humanity and stressed that we need to achieve steep greenhouse gas reductions before 2030 if we are to stay within 1.5°C. That window for accelerated action is less than 3,000 days and counting. Universities have a unique role to play through using their campuses as “living labs” to test and demonstrate rapid deployment of innovative and accelerated pathways towards net&nbsp;zero.Supporting student action on sustainabilityAchieving SDG&nbsp;4.7 by matching sustainability learning outcomes to subject-specific curricula: a&nbsp;guideStudents demand action on the climate crisis now – not laterInstitutions should encourage their students to mobilise on issues that matter and invite them to play a key role in influencing priorities and agendas for leadership. We have invested in programmes and awareness campaigns to engage more participants in sustainability and climate initiatives. More than 4,000 students, staff and faculty participated in the UBC Climate Strike in September of 2019, part of a worldwide movement that was a catalyst for Climate Emergency Declarations to be made globally.Following the declaration, we created more than 10 specialised working groups on climate action, with significant contributions and inputs provided by students and faculty experts. This type of purpose-driven engagement builds a sense of distributed ownership and stewardship when it comes to implementing the plan. It’s important to identify faculty champions: whether your university is a large tier&nbsp;1 research university or small liberal arts college, there are likely to be individuals with the knowledge, expertise and a “voice at the table” to help influence decisions through research and administrative capacities.Here are some more strategies to mobilise your university community on climate action:1. Create governance systems and structures that support alignment on climate actionEffective governance structures are critical in supporting systems-change that enables sustainable and equitable decisions to be made across the university. The right structures will help to prioritise and align university resources to take climate action. Despite having more than 20 years of significant progress on sustainability at UBC, the original governance structures prevented integrated decision-making. In&nbsp;2018, we reviewed and restructured the decision-making structures to better align policy development, decision-making and resource allocation.Create a Board Committee for Climate Action and Sustainability to oversee strategic decisions on responsible investments of the university endowment, climate programmes and policies, implementation, monitoring and reporting progress.The establishment of interdisciplinary committees that include representation across both operations and the academy can also help to guide major sustainability initiatives. We have an Operational Sustainability Steering Committee (OSSC), a Campus as a Living Lab Committee (CLL) and Integrated Communications and Engagement Committee (ICE), which help to align decisions, allocate resources and assign priorities.Remember that sustainability and climate change action is not “owned” by a single department or administrative unit – our achievements on addressing climate action have been the result of an integrated and distributed approach across the university.2. Investments and carbon pricing to support accelerated climate actionInvestments in climate action will make universities more resilient to the catastrophic impacts associated with climate events.Consider an Internal Carbon Price (ICP)&nbsp;[MP1]&nbsp; as part of your action plan. The application of this financial policy tool can result in more money being invested in climate-friendly systems that reduce carbon dioxide emissions, and it can also save money when factoring in the life cycle cost-benefits of the solution.Demonstrate how green investments are helping to increase resilience across the institution’s core operations to disruptive climate events. This will incentivise further action. Our Green Building Action Plan and low-carbon district energy systems have helped UBC to continue operating core academic buildings despite wildfires and floods impacting regional energy supply grids.Take proactive steps by requiring investments in “climate ready buildings” that are designed to withstand the impacts of more frequent and intense climate events.Investments in climate action are not just operational but can be integral to supporting the academic mission by creating innovative platforms for teaching, learning and research through “campus as a living lab” projects. An example is the Bioenergy Research Demonstration Facility (BRDF), which produces renewable energy for our campus using wood waste biomass. This helps to reduce emissions, increases resiliency by diversifying energy supply and supports research projects on innovative clean energy systems.We are fortunate to have a long legacy of thought-leadership, student engagement and executive support for climate action, which has enhanced the university’s global reputation through the&nbsp;Times Higher Education Impact Rankings. Our commitment to climate action has attracted and helped us to retain world-class researchers, students and staff, allowing us to advance climate-related research and operational change. By working together for climate action, we can serve as an example for the world and accelerate the drive towards net&nbsp;zero emissions.John Madden is director of sustainability and engineering, campus and community planning at the University of British Columbia.If you would like advice and insight from academics and university staff delivered directly to your inbox each week,&nbsp;sign up for the Campus&nbsp;newsletter.

How to mobilise your university on climate action

John Madden provides insight on how universities can mobilise their intellectual and institutional capacities to accelerate towards net zero emissions

Accelerating towards net zero emissions: how to mobilise your university on climate action

They are the oldest rules in the academic handbook: promotion and tenure. And in many ways, they uphold the academic structure. But as conversations abound about the need for higher education to be more equitable and committed to justice, equity, diversity and inclusion (Jedi) issues, we now need to have the hardest conversation of all: what that means for the structures that uphold inequality.Across the globe, leaders in higher education are talking about making diversity statements a mandatory part of the job search. We have weighed in on this conversation, calling for rubrics and training on how to read and evaluate diversity statements. But is it enough to ask for a diversity statement only when a candidate is applying for a role? How do we ensure that this is not just another check mark, further siloing diversity work to the hiring process only? We propose a major structural shift in higher education: reforming promotion and tenure to centre Jedi.Collected advice on how universities can support greater staff diversityDecolonising the curriculum – how do I get started?Do we need equity or equality to make things ‘fair’? Actually, we need bothTalking about tenure and promotion reform might sound like the surest way to get faculty’s hackles up, but this should be an inclusive process that is a calling-in rather than a calling-out. So, what does that look like?1) Continuing to uphold diversity statement principles from hiring into faculty’s daily workWe should create a continuum from when an applicant applies for a job by infusing the principles of their diversity statement into the ongoing work they do on a daily basis. Universities must devote time to developing creative solutions to change the academic structure and must teach faculty and students about ways to engage structural change in order to uphold Jedi values.As we suggested in our advice for how to write an effective diversity statement – faculty need to know how the academic structure reinforces and recapitulates to inequities and inequalities and how we can individually and collectively mitigate and eliminate structural racism. We need faculty who stand in the gap for their students, who create more opportunities, who use their resources to help others who are less resourced and are unaware of the hidden rules or do not know how to navigate academia.Faculty should prioritise equity over equality. They should identify new pools of talent and figure out which resources are needed for equity. They should speak up for those who are not at “the&nbsp;table”. They should challenge the criteria used for hiring, admitting and selecting, particularly when they notice a pattern of selection that does not lead to diversity.To support this major shift, faculty should be offered workshops, training, individual mentoring and other assets, such as free online courses through initiatives such as Arizona State University’s&nbsp;Starbucks Global Academy. For example, a workshop on inclusive pedagogy, how to offer epistemological lenses to your syllabi or enlightened mentoring might facilitate some thinking in these areas for faculty who are less comfortable with Jedi work. An institution can motivate staff and faculty to engage with these trainings by offering bonuses in annual performance reviews and by holding individuals accountable, as we detail below.It is important to stress at this stage that this structural shift is&nbsp;not an affront to academic freedom and that this is&nbsp;not a&nbsp;request to change syllabi, research foci or teaching. Rather, it is an offering for a new way to think about the work already being done.2. Ensuring that diversity work is ongoing and accountableThere are many ways to ensure that diversity work is ongoing and accountable – here are just a few:Invite candidates for promotion and tenure to submit a diversity statement that offers an opportunity to reflect on the Jedi work they have engaged in throughout their time as faculty. This is a chance to render visible – and to get credit for – those vast amounts of invisible labour that faculty do to support diversity within institutions, with students and in their own work. Faculty could focus on how they have put Jedi values into practice in their teaching, research, mentoring and service.&nbsp;Ask that candidates address diversity in each section of their materials, reflecting on what they have done in the Jedi space with regards to their teaching, their research and their service. In this model, rather than drafting a separate diversity statement, candidates would be asked to weave their reflections into their personal statement.&nbsp;Include questions about diversity as part of students’ evaluations of courses. This adds another layer of evaluation, increasing accountability and creating opportunities for faculty and student growth. Students’ feedback offers important perspectives on what is working in the classroom. In addition to helping to improve teaching, students’ feedback reveals information about the campus environment and can inform directions for student-focused diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programming that is co-curricular, or can be infused into the curriculum.&nbsp;This structural shift would have to be accompanied by mandatory training for all search committees in how to read and evaluate this change in promotion and tenure materials. Faculties and committees should decide which route to take, how to communicate this to candidates and whether to include these materials for external reviewers.One last thing: do not exclude Bipoc academics from this processWhile it has been said that Black, indigenous and other people of colour (Bipoc) should not bear the burden of fixing the system that oppresses them, attempts to fix the system without their input are unrealistic, impractical and exclusionary. Bipoc individuals cannot be excluded from this work because they know it better than white colleagues. They must be guides to ensure that reform is working. Moreover, the boom of opportunities related to diversity, equity and inclusion should be a boom for many Bipoc academics who study race and racism. Hiring white academics into new positions with resources only continues Bipoc exclusion from the power positions of higher education. Some faculty have a head start on Jedi, and these faculty, who are largely Bipoc, should be rewarded with opportunities to lead in this area, which many have always been engaged in as part of their invisible and unpaid labour.Pardis Mahdavi is dean of social sciences at the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences and directs the School of Social Transformation, and Scott Brooks is an associate professor with the T.&nbsp;Denny Sanford School of Social and Family Dynamics, both at Arizona State University.

Pardis Mahdavi and Scott Brooks explain how a rethink of the processes that govern promotion and tenure to put diversity work at its heart could result in a more equitable higher education system

Breaking the oldest rules in the book: making promotion and tenure more equitable

Effective academic leadership is fundamental to institutional success. Yet in many HE organisations, there remains an imbalance in equality, inclusion and diversity in leadership. In this article we highlight why this lack of diversity is so significant and draw on our experience to outline an integrated, accessible and inclusive leadership pathway for creating a diverse talent pool of candidates for roles at all levels of the leadership structure.The problem&nbsp;Many studies focus on challenges at senior executive level (vice-chancellor, pro vice-chancellor, etc) yet changes can only be achieved with diverse and inclusive leadership pipelines. Among the key challenges are that academic leadership often lacks transparent training pathways or has a culture of patronage or sponsorship.This masks issues with diversity and inclusion and presents no clear intervention points. Research-active academics face additional obstacles to progression as there is an expectation for them to maintain a high level of research quality in addition to their leadership responsibilities. This is a particular issue for female researchers.Often, traditional institutional hierarchies and decision-making bodies require academic leadership positions to be filled by professors or existing leaders. Combined, these factors can “bake in” inequalities due to poor diversity at this level.Competing hierarchies of oppression: why is race a lower priority?Research time disappearing before your eyes? Try student collaborationsSo you want a novel way to support untapped research talent?The impact&nbsp;Organising decision-making and strategic committees and groups in this way can lead to blind spots, unconscious bias and poor understanding of inclusion and diversity issues. Less diverse groups are less likely to foster creativity and innovation in idea generation and problem solving at a time when these are sorely needed.Academic leadership positions can also appear overwhelming due to the weight of responsibility, uncertain expectations and patchy training. The lack of role models, advocates or dedicated mentoring for academics from marginalised communities can deter them from even considering applying for leadership positions. This, combined with poor succession planning, means there is no clear or inclusive pipeline of academics with the skills, experience or confidence to secure leadership roles.A solution?&nbsp;We propose an integrated model at institutional and school, college or faculty levels, with a commitment to equality, inclusion and diversity. To be truly effective this should be developed in partnership with academics and representative groups from marginalised communities to identify specific aims, issues and obstacles and create tailored development initiatives. These may include training, coaching, mentoring or changes in practice to remove barriers and support confidence. To this end, these are practical steps we would recommend:Create a pathway of intermediate and secondment leadership roles throughout school, college or faculty structures. Peter Hogg implemented a series of research leadership positions within his school, allowing mid- and early-career staff the chance to experience leadership, supported by senior mentors. &nbsp;Open recruitment for leadership roles to readers, senior lecturers, lecturers and research fellows. Secondments, or fixed-term rotational positions, are effective in providing insight and experience and reducing risk. Open communication and engagement are critical to support applications from all diversity groups, while mentoring and coaching allows new leaders to become confident in the scope and responsibility of their role. We have seen the power of this approach, with earlier career academics appointed as research centre directors and associate deans, driving innovation and engagement.Embed diversity into committee or decision-making body membership reviews. Question whether role-based membership is appropriate and sufficiently inclusive. Including earlier career staff allows for greater diversity and broadens the conversation to include opinions and voices from the wider academic community.Allocate newer members of committees a sponsor or mentor from the existing membership who can guide and support them to establish their voice, presence and confidence in the group, while allowing them full responsibility in their role.Create academic working groups to address institutional development needs, with a commitment to inclusion and diversity. Applications are invited from those with special interests or expertise, regardless of career stage, giving earlier career academics experience of contributing to institution-wide initiatives.&nbsp;Strong leadership and commitment at institutional and school/college/faculty level is critical. Existing academic leaders and the professoriate must be engaged to support acceptance of leaders at lecturer/research fellow level, and the changes in culture and practice that may result. Reverting to the original approach carries the danger of dissatisfaction and disengagement in earlier career researchers and marginalised communities. &nbsp;The outcome&nbsp;Simply having these conversations increases awareness on how best to harness the potential of all academic staff. Creating a staged academic leadership pathway improves resilience and effectiveness. Leaders are protected from overwhelm and a wider range of expertise is available, as more people are involved. Leadership experience strengthens applications for promotion to reader and professorial level, supporting a much-needed increase in equality and diversity in later career stages.Dedicated and tailored support, coaching and mentoring creates confidence and raises aspirations for those academics who may not have considered applying for leadership positions before. Greater diversity allows for more role models and eases the path for future academics.Above all, this model creates a dynamic, thriving, resilient and well-trained academic leadership talent pool, supporting succession planning, increasing choice and promoting an equal, inclusive and diverse selection process.We are now one fifth of the way through the 21st century. It’s time to put dedicated time and effort into developing and harnessing the leadership talents of all academics. Universities are facing unprecedented challenges, which can only be solved through creativity, innovation and diversity.Our experience has been in developing research leadership pathways, yet the model we propose here is applicable to all academic disciplines, as well as professional services pathways. Our aim has always been to identify and develop talent wherever it is found in the organisation.Jo Cresswell is coach and mentor at Dr Joanne Cresswell Coaching. She was formerly director of research and knowledge exchange at the University of Salford.Peter Hogg is emeritus professor at the School of Health and Society, University of Salford.

Abandoning traditional hierarchies and allowing mid- and early-career staff to experience leadership creates a thriving, diverse talent pool, say Jo Cresswell and Peter Hogg

Complaining that the leadership talent pool is running dry? Here’s how to fill it

Universities no longer operate as they used to. They are centres for events, sport, hospitality and more. They become student villages with health and well-being key priorities for the communities that inhabit them. It’s not enough for academics to be experts in their field − they act as counsellors and undertake teaching from undergraduate to professional education. They assume administrative duties, engage in citizenship and outreach activities, and are expected to publish high-quality research. In the past year they also became digital media specialists converting lectures and seminars into high-class media productions.These multilayered identities for both academics and higher education sit within a more competitive landscape where a renewed focus on audit is reflected in both scepticism and challenges in the sector. Frequent stories in the press focus on the pay of vice-chancellors and industrial action over pensions – along with academic resistance to a managerialist culture in universities, which are criticised as being run like businesses.All this signals a seismic shift in our expectations of university leaders.What we need now are leaders who are empathetic, resilient, compassionate and, most importantly, who hold themselves and others accountable for their behaviour and values. We need to move towards the “authentic” university leader.Back in 2003, Bill George defined authentic leaders as having, or working towards, five characteristics: purpose and passion; values and behaviour; relationships and connectedness; self-discipline and consistency; and heart and compassion. Much of the conversation around authentic leadership stemmed from the unethical behaviour of companies such as Enron that led to the financial crash in the 2000s. At that time there was a huge sense of distrust − and thus arose the need to focus on these characteristics to meet leadership challenges.In contrast to the US, the UK does not have a tradition of university leaders writing about their experiences of leading. This includes their own challenges (and failings). Yet, a year ago in October 2020, Simone Buitendijk did just that, when she wrote on her University of Leeds blog about the strain that colleagues were putting themselves under.Seven months into the pandemic, Buitendijk wrote that we needed to accept our limitations and that we could not deliver what students expected − and that was OK. In admitting to her own adversities, Buitendijk urged her community of staff and students to accept that we could only do our best. For her, it wasn’t about letting go of our standards of care for students, but rather to do our best to ensure that their experiences and outcomes were good, while acknowledging that this might not be where it had been in previous years.Such upfront honesty is quite rare. But being authentic is not without its downsides. Back in 2015, Herminia Ibarra wrote about the dilemmas attached to the authentic leader. She considered this the “authenticity paradox”, where a desire to be authentic can limit the potential for personal growth. By holding firm to personal beliefs, one can limit the search for innovative ideas.While authenticity can result in leaders spending too much time “storytelling” through sharing their experiences, Brené Brown considers such conversations to be about opening up and being vulnerable. This is a sign of courage.For leadership to be effective, it requires us to understand our own limitations and listen to others to learn how we can overcome them. This requires leaders to act in an authentic manner, which can be problematic in a university setting where staff are often conflicted between their role and position within their discipline and institution. Many refer to “the university” as something distinct from themselves, rather than accepting that they are part of the university community.But the sector is facing massive challenges, from rocketing pension costs and fluctuating student numbers to a changing model of delivery. The economic impact of the pandemic has led to job cuts in universities across the globe. It is in such situations that an authentic leadership approach is needed most.Many universities have and will go through further restructures, redundancies and strategy implementations that may result in increases to workloads and a period of pain before benefits can be realised. The inevitable may not be able to be avoided, but an authentic leadership approach can bring about clarity, honesty and transparency in decision-making.Clear communication about why decisions are in the best interests of the university and its community are essential, while allowing the authentic leader to own their mistakes and admit when things are challenging. Tough decisions are never easy to make, but leading with authenticity and with transparent decision-making can start a new culture of fairness, where mistakes provide lessons to learn from.The role of the academic leader needs to change. Just as universities have seen a shift in their business models, it is essential that those at the top adapt to new ways of leading. Through the past year and the challenges ahead, the emergence of the authentic leader will help address ways of working and worries among the university community and beyond.Sarah Jones is deputy dean, and Alasdair Blair is associate pro vice-chancellor (academic) and Jean Monnet professor, both at De Montfort University. Alasdair Blair is co-editor of International Perspectives on Leadership in Higher Education (Emerald, 2022).If you would like advice and insight from academics and university staff delivered direct to your inbox each week,&nbsp;sign up for the Campus newsletter.

Universities need authentic leadership more than ever

For leadership to be effective, we need to understand our own limitations and listen to others to learn how to overcome them, say Sarah Jones and Alasdair Blair

Authentic leadership isn’t new – but we need it more than ever in higher education

Over the past 18 months, we’ve all heard about the unique challenges of joining a new organisation during a global pandemic. For me, joining Leeds Trinity University as vice-chancellor in November 2020, I was faced with establishing my own leadership style at a time when staff and students were working remotely, a number of our traditional touchpoints had disappeared and the goalposts seemed to be changing by the day. Here are five of the key lessons I learned, in the hope that university colleagues can take something from my experiences.&nbsp;1. Recognise the needs of your communityTreating people as individuals and taking a personal and authentic approach helps them feel seen, safe and supported. Understanding and respecting the university’s ethos that students are a name, not a number, has been central to my overall approach as a leader. Although the personal touch was important to our community before Covid-19, it’s proved to be essential during the pandemic and will continue to be a priority for me going forward. For example, while there are many advantages to using technology to stay connected, we have also sent postcards and small gifts to our staff and students throughout the year in recognition of their hard work, resilience and prevailing community spirit. This, alongside regular and personalised updates to provide direction and clarity, has made a real difference.2. Establish an agenda of inclusionWith or without a pandemic, our priority is always to support, nurture and be inclusive of everyone at the university. With this in mind, I have been steered by the notion of psychological safety so that everyone at Leeds Trinity feels comfortable enough to voice their opinion. This thinking has guided several race-equality-related events within the university over the past year, including staff training and a virtual live event with staff, students and alumni on Black Lives Matter, with a focus on accountability, transparency and action.During the pandemic, I have also overseen the introduction of an Office for Institutional Equity (OIE), one of the first of its kind in the UK. The OIE will establish a fairer, inclusive environment that sits outside HR. I will work closely with the director to examine all our policies and practices through the lens of equality, diversity and inclusion, support staff and students in these matters, and develop appropriate training.3. Listen to leadBuilding trust and developing relationships as a leader without being physically present on campus has certainly been a new challenge. However, I believe that anyone who leads authentically can ensure that communication feels genuine, open and honest, even if your colleagues aren’t seeing you in person. Active listening is integral to leadership roles, especially given the very real fears and anxieties experienced due to the pandemic. In addition to engaging directly with all colleagues (as I explain in point four), my goal was to empower everyone in the executive team and at leadership level and provide them with the confidence and space to lead their teams in the way they felt would be most beneficial – building trust among us all.4. Be genuinely visible, available and approachableFrom the very beginning of a tenure, university leaders must focus on being as visible as possible. Without making time to engage with your colleagues, you are denied the insight that allows you to learn from them. For me, being visible meant establishing Microsoft Teams meetings with all university departments to provide colleagues with the opportunity to share their feelings and ask questions directly. This approach allowed me to quickly get to the heart of the issues faced, understand them and devise strategies to mitigate impact and support collaboration across the institution. As such, this also enabled effective communication of the policy changes affecting us and other UK universities during the pandemic.I have also sought to lead compassionately. I make a point of expressing my gratitude to everyone for their hard work and resilience. The past year and more has been extremely difficult for numerous reasons, so making sure that everyone at the university knows they are supported and appreciated is important. &nbsp;5. Plan, but stay flexibleI am committed to using what we have learned from the year gone by to give our students the best university experience possible. But we will not stop listening now. As we go forward, we must keep asking our students and staff to share their experiences with us, through both online Q&amp;As and in-person meetings, giving them the opportunity to ask questions directly and share their views. We can use this valuable insight to plan and make improvements both academically and culturally. During the pandemic, universities have had to innovate beyond what seemed imaginable a few years ago. In the future, we will have to take what we’ve learned and continue to adapt. Let’s keep that going now.Ultimately, by recognising the needs of staff and students, ensuring you are visible and approachable, and most importantly creating an environment that prioritises psychological safety above all else, I believe university leaders will be in a position to weather any storm that comes their way.Charles Egbu is vice-chancellor of&nbsp;Leeds Trinity University.

Charles Egbu, vice-chancellor of Leeds Trinity University, reflects on five key lessons he learned while taking the helm during the pandemic

Leaders: how to build community and trust during a crisis

It’s annual accounts season at universities. Up and down the land, a handful of university colleagues will have been straining their eyes on spreadsheets and bringing together the narrative that tells a story of how their university has performed over the past year.Despite all that effort, very few university staff will pay any attention to these reports. Some will dismiss them as corporate waffle; others will find it difficult to move beyond the financial headlines. Many will focus solely on how much vice-chancellors and other senior staff are paid.But beneath those headlines it’s possible to glean a little more understanding of where a university is going and what its options are in terms of future strategy and direction. This sits within a broader, resource-based view that will reflect financial recovery plans as well as the risks to university funding around the Augar Review and pension costs. The response by many universities to these challenges will include an acceleration of efforts to diversify income.Surrounding all these issues are debates around business models and innovation strategies. There is an infinite amount of writing by business school professors on these matters. This includes discussion about the utility of “deliberate” and “emergent” strategies as articulated by the likes of Henry Mintzberg.Chan Kim refers to the importance of “blue ocean strategy”. This is where organisations focus on “untapped market space”, looking for the opportunities where they can grow. This is instead of trying to outperform other organisations and grab a greater share of the existing marketplace, which is referred to as “red ocean strategy”.As with other organisations, the Covid-19 pandemic has been a major disruptor to university business models. The use of predicted grades has led to significant over-recruiting by several universities for the 2021-22 academic year and caused wider disruption to the undergraduate admission strategies of many English universities, with 80 per cent of students getting into their first-choice institution.Predicted grades also resurface discussions around student number caps and unconditional offer strategies. The latter will raise concerns among many schools and colleges and bring about more debate on education standards.Beneath all this noise, there is a more fundamental change taking place. Covid-19 has led to a democratisation of business strategies. For leaders of all organisations, the legacy of the past 18 months has been a reminder of the importance of the individuals who make up the very organisations they lead.Thus, while strategic planning and company reports reflect the broader corporate language, it’s important for university leaders to remind themselves that universities only exist because of the community formed via the collaboration of staff and students.In this sense, beneath all the froth around university annual reports, we need to remind ourselves that universities are well placed to respond to these challenges given their underpinning values of education, dignity and respect.It might be tempting to dust off a copy of a book on business models and innovation strategy that has been sitting on a bookshelf for too long, but simply adopting and transferring such strategies will rarely work. Universities are too unique for that.That’s not to say that universities shouldn’t learn and adapt their business models, but as leaders we need to remember that we never have all the answers.A key lesson we need to take from Covid-19 is that life has a way of constantly surprising us. While it might be possible to plan for the unexpected, plans only get you so far. Universities must be brave and accept that the right decisions may not always deliver the best results in those spreadsheets.In moments of change, what we fall back on is our personal and organisational agility. A university’s ability to truly succeed will be determined by its underlying agility and capacity to have a resourceful and adaptive mindset. This requires us to challenge and debate and not just to accept the status quo.For some, such a mindset can be viewed in negative terms, equivalent to that of a disruptor. Yet for organisations to adapt, there must be challenge. This ensures we’re not all thinking the same, and we shouldn’t surround ourselves with like-minded people. We must encourage others to question and to engage in a deeper level of conversation. As Simon Sinek argues, we need to inspire action by starting with the question of “why?”Through all this, it’s important to stay firm to our own values and be clear what our purpose as leaders is. We need to remember what inspired us to be academics in the first place and to remember the colleagues who inspired, supported and mentored us on our own career path.While spreadsheets and annual reports are important, we mustn’t forget that universities are really about the people who study and work in them. We need to provide time to mentor and support our colleagues, recognising that institutions are transitioning from previously working through change at a slower pace to suddenly needing to be adaptive to quick changes. And it’s not just staff − environments also need to be adapted to support this, along with processes and structures. In these debates, as leaders we need to be humble in our appreciation of how much and how little we know.Alasdair Blair is associate PVC academic and Jean Monnet professor at De Montfort University. He is co-editor of Leadership in Higher Education (Emerald, 2022).Sarah Jones is deputy dean at De Montfort University, working across all aspects of student experience, outcomes and innovative pedagogies.

With huge change ahead, leaders must be brave and accept that the right decisions may not always deliver the best spreadsheet results, say Alasdair Blair and Sarah Jones

University leaders need to demonstrate an adaptive mindset

I recently led a research team that interviewed presidents, vice-chancellors and directors of national universities from around the world, in an attempt to enhance understanding of presidents’ roles in leading through Covid-19.One common theme raised by these leaders was the need for all institutions to be ready to evolve. One president with more than three decades of experience leading a university went as far as to say: “I really look at [Covid] as a catalytic moment for change…I think we have no choice but to change.”This president went on to posit that institutions trying to hang on and “pray for normality” would be unlikely to survive. They further insisted that, at the other end of the spectrum, some institutions would be “drivers that are going to be the ones to figure out very early that this opportunity allowed them to get out into the blue water and do things much differently, to create a whole new structure…for our education [system]”.The area where the swiftest and most significant change occurred was the move to online or distance courses for traditionally face-to-face campuses. This monumental shift, thought of as almost impossible prior to the pandemic, certainly highlights a “catalytic moment for change” in how faculty engage their classes. But on numerous campuses this growth and opportunity has stagnated, with many faculty seeking a return to “normal” over development of new teaching skills and greater pedagogical flexibility.Below are three things institutional leaders can do to live up to their titles and truly lead in the development of faculty as they seek to be better equipped to grasp the transformation of educational systems worldwide.Demonstrate the changeLeaders often underestimate the subtle and unintentional messages they send through their decisions and actions. When it comes to a transformational approach to utilising technology in the classroom, they should consider their example. If leaders want faculty and staff to engage in developmental opportunities and become better online educators, they need to demonstrate new technologies in practice and in exemplary ways.Even simple steps such as utilising the breadth of tools in online meeting platforms, such as breakout groups, chat boxes, polls and content sharing, can inspire faculty to see what is possible. Further, taking ordinary practices such as required training or orientation and developing highly engaging online learning tools through campus platforms can similarly take a common practice and transform it into an opportunity to promote development.Highlight what great faculty look like and how they got there&nbsp;However, utilising the tools required for high impact online leaning is not enough. Leaders should be prepared to point out when high-impact practices are used and where faculty can go for training. This helps ensure faculty recognise and take advantage of opportunities. Awards and recognition are common tools in higher education for rewarding faculty performance, but sadly they are often ambiguous and disconnected from the majority of faculty.To achieve the transformation referenced above, rethinking recognition could lead to greater change in an institution. For example, rather than one annual award for great teaching, a group of leaders could recognise the faculty employing innovative online tools consistently throughout the year. This more frequent approach will continually remind faculty of the resources they have that can help them be effective educators, and it also ensures that leaders are looking out for (and are thus aware of) innovative practices. In addition, once faculty are spotlighted, the training and resources they employed to develop their pedagogical approach should be the focus of that recognition. This will help raise awareness of the opportunities available to faculty to become better educators.Centralise leadership but decentralise impactOne of the biggest challenges of leading faculty development is striking the balance between creating opportunities for faculty to learn new skills and getting buy-in from them to engage with those opportunities.The creation of teaching and learning development centres has helped with the advancement and centralisation of innovative teaching practices, but leaders now need to increase awareness and engagement from those in charge across their respective campuses. Strong partnerships with various academic units are a good place to start − a college of engineering may need support with testing software on campus learning management systems, and a teaching centre could provide that training while also offering it to the broader campus community. Similarly, a college of performing arts may need enhanced training on creating high-quality videos, or embedding those videos into learning management systems, which can also be developed by the institution’s teaching centre.Adopting a centralised approach to teaching development − as a bridge between colleges and a resource for the creation of content − is critical to ensuring campus buy-in and effective use of resources.Looking aheadCovid-19 has highlighted the immense – and unexpected – capacity for change in universities. What was once thought impossible (a complete shift to online learning) was implemented with speed in many institutions around the world. While many teaching practices used pre-pandemic are effective and will be reinstated, the opportunity to rethink and develop innovative approaches to teaching and learning should be seized.The “catalytic moment for change” is here, and institutional leaders that demonstrate the change, reward faculty who engage in opportunities for development and increase campus-wide buy-in will determine the future of higher education.Jon McNaughtan is&nbsp;assistant professor of educational psychology and leadership at&nbsp;Texas Tech University.

Those that lead by example, reward innovative faculty and increase campus-wide buy-in will determine the future of higher education, says Jon McNaughtan

How leaders can seize higher ed’s ‘catalytic moment for change’

Provosts at four US institutions discuss their leadership styles, the future of online teaching and how to balance the often competing agendas of governments, students and internal stakeholders

University leadership

Accelerating towards net zero emissions: how to mobilise your university on climate action

Breaking the oldest rules in the book: making promotion and tenure more equitable

Complaining that the leadership talent pool is running dry? Here’s how to fill it

Authentic leadership isn’t new – but we need it more than ever in higher education

Leaders: how to build community and trust during a crisis

University leaders need to demonstrate an adaptive mindset

How leaders can seize higher ed’s ‘catalytic moment for change’

THE Live US 2021: Overcoming leadership challenges in digital teaching

Discover

More from THE

Sign up

Collaborate with THE

About

Legal stuff