Globalisation, changes in technology and transportation, and isomorphic trends in the sector emphasise the need to identify the diversity of higher education institutions. As a response, classification mechanisms emerged in higher education in recent decades. While many studies on classification focus on the types and methodology, the examination…

Professional staff in research administration work closely and collaboratively with academic staff. Examining research administrators' work provides a point of entry for investigating research culture in the Canadian Academy. We focus on interviews with 19 research administrators from 5 universities within a larger project on the social production…

There is a growing body of literature on the roles that deans play in challenging times; however, what is often missing are deans' own voices as they reflect on their experiences trying to manage the dilemmas and crises inherent in their work. This is particularly true of the past few years when deans have managed unprecedented levels of…

There is a popular perception that interdisciplinary research collaboration can yield benefits to knowledge production, from improvements to creativity to advances in addressing real-world problems. However, studies into interdisciplinarity frequently point to material obstacles, such as burdensome time and resource requirements, difficulties in…

COVID-19 has caused a revelation of change across the world. Higher education leaders faced significant challenges during the unprecedented crisis, particularly in the early stage of the pandemic. We examined the University of Sydney's response to the pandemic using key informant interviews with leaders at different levels of the university…

This study explored the notion of feminine leadership among women in middle leadership positions in Kuwait's private universities. Using semi-structured interviews as the main source of data, 12 female leaders who currently occupy middle leadership positions and those who have held similar positions in the past were interviewed. The findings…

This study examined 32 university presidents' responses to the violence that occurred during and after a 'Unite the Right' white supremacist rally in Charlottesville Virginia in August 2017. The purpose of this study was to explore how university presidents provided leadership during this crisis and how they did or did not utilise sensemaking to…

African universities have been tasked by their governments to develop and build research capacity, performance, and output, which puts a focus on university research management. Paying attention to research management is very important for any country trying to improve its research performance. However, university research management is an area…

Ten interviews of senior leaders gave a clear picture about what they considered mentoring should be in a College of Education in Ghana -- a coaching model of directive instruction and a hierarchical transfer of skills and knowledge. While mentoring was viewed as a central part of a training teacher's course, funds, attitudes and workload did not…

The inadequacy of training and support for academic middle managers in the US, UK, and Australia is well documented. What remains unclear is what would make for better professional development. This study fills this gap by investigating what associate deans at US research universities report learning 'on the job'. Drawing on their perspectives and…

Heads of department (HoDs) are commonly made responsible for implementing gender balance change in academia. Research has found that they are often reluctant to take ownership of this problem. Our study found that department heads in Norway did take on a lot of ownership for gender balance change and we divided their leadership approaches with…

Leadership development in academia is generating a lot of interest due to its idiosyncrasies and complexities, as well as recent studies highlighting the neglect of systematic leadership development in academia. The purpose of this qualitative research study is to discover the subjective experiences of academic leaders enrolled in leadership…

Using Multilevel Job Demand-Resources theory, this research explores how crisis influenced perceptions about academic work engagement at individual, team, and organisational levels. The COVID-19 crisis led universities to make significant changes in response to health and fiscal impacts. Changes included restructuring, job shedding, and pivoting…

Utilising Bacchi's framework 'What's the problem represented to be?' the literature on managing academic workloads was analysed to explore why workload allocation models are deemed essential in the contemporary university and the assumptions which underpin workload allocations. Whether due to the need for efficient use of scarce resources or…

The paper investigates quality management in teaching and learning in higher education institutions from a principal-agent perspective. Based on data gained from semi-structured interviews and from a nation-wide survey with quality managers of German higher education institutions, the study shows how quality managers position themselves in…