Anecdotal evidence suggests that there is growing concern about increasing administrative burden within universities around the world. At the same time, the literature explicitly devoted to the issue of administrative burden within universities remains relatively scant. Drawing on various bodies of literature and reflections on the situation at…

This study explores the nomenclature surrounding professional services staff within higher education in the UK. Taking a case study method, it uses a qualitative approach to understand the term 'non-academic' to describe the diverse range of professional services roles. Both professional services and academic staff were interviewed and there is a…

University governing bodies, especially academic boards, play a crucial role in policy formation. However, due to the predominance of managerial values over academic values in the policy-making process, a persistent divide exists between policy formulation and implementation. This divide results from the marginalisation of academics and the…

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…

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…

Financial scenario modelling appears to offer the potential to help universities cope with an uncertain funding environment. By means of a questionnaire survey of UK universities, supported by interviews with members of finance departments, this paper explores the prevalence and construction of financial models used for scenario analysis.…

Educational leadership serves a pivotal function in establishing the tenor of campus cultures. Executive decisions shape educational policy and practice in ways that either hinder or advance marginalised students' academic success. Leaders are in powerful positions to modify unjust academic ecosystems and to de-ideologise the white-centric…

Academic middle leaders play a critical role in facilitating the leadership of learning and teaching in universities. Previous research has reported the undervaluing and under-resourcing of these academic middle leadership roles. To promote a greater understanding of academic middle leaders, middle leading and middle leadership of learning and…

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 purpose of the paper is to examine the financial health of selected public universities in Malaysia. The study assessed the performance of Malaysian research universities, on the primary reserve ratio, viability ratio, return on net asset ratio and net operating revenue ratio, as well as the Hirschman-Herfindahl Index for revenue…

Based on an analysis of policy documents, questionnaires and interviews, the paper discusses the experiences of Chinese young academics on tenure-track contracts. Findings suggest that young academics perceive tenure as a managerial solution to governance reform. Meanwhile, a population-resource imbalance and the uncertainty in career progression…

This paper reviews the fourth decade of the "Journal of Higher Education Policy and Management," including author analyses and thematic insights from articles published from 2009 to 2018. In addition to an increase in the number of articles published, the "Journal" now publishes more articles by authors from outside Australia,…

In 2017 Universities Australia initiated their "Indigenous Strategy 2017-2020" which outlined a clear commitment for each university to appoint at least one Indigenous person to a senior executive role. Many universities are yet to realise this promise. In some cases, it is a situation of nil intent to do so, while others have an…

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…