Leadership Development in Higher Education
Summary
Leadership development in higher education encompasses the cultivation of skills, values and knowledge necessary for academic leaders to navigate a complex and evolving sector. The field intersects themes of governance, culture, digital transformation and sustainability, reflecting both local contexts and global imperatives. Traditional models imported from management studies have been critiqued for undermining shared governance, prompting calls for more democratic and socially just leadership practices. Concurrently, emphasis on strategic competences, innovation and agility has led to tailored programmes, frameworks and interventions designed to enhance transformational capabilities among deans, heads of department and emerging academic leaders. Recent scholarship highlights the importance of inclusive and collective approaches, the integration of digital tools and the alignment of leadership development with institutional goals such as equity, community engagement and environmental responsibility.
Research from Nature Portfolio
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Leadership Development in Higher Education publication trend
The graph below shows the total number of articles in leadership development in higher education across all publications each year (not limited to Nature Index journals).
Technical terms
Transformational leadership: A style that emphasises vision, inspiration and individualised support to drive organisational change.
Distributed leadership: An approach in which leadership roles and responsibilities are shared across multiple individuals or teams.
Competence framework: A structured set of skills, behaviours and knowledge against which leadership capabilities are assessed and developed.
References
- Three perspectives on leadership in higher education: traditionalist, reformist, pragmatist. Higher Education (2024).
- Academics’ Leadership Styles and Their Motivation to Participate in a Leadership Training Program in the Digital Era. Education Sciences (2025).
- Advancing a cultural change agenda in higher education: issues and values related to reimagining academic leadership. Discover Sustainability (2022).
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