Presidents have difficult roles regardless of systemic context and in times of crisis their work is especially complex. While the body of work on presidents generally is growing, understanding of their role in crisis is underdeveloped. In this study, we enhance research on presidential crisis leadership by applying the competing values framework…

Over half of college campuses in the United States can expect their president to step down in the next five years (American Council on Education, 2023). The new leaders who assume these vacant roles will be expected to lead institutions through difficult and unexpected crisis situations. Campus crises can arise from political or financial…

Higher education scholars have studied the American college presidency. Yet, fewer studies have prioritized the support systems needed to ensure that the presidential pipeline is representative of the students they serve. By examining the concept of sponsorship through a hermeneutical phenomenological approach, this piece described the mechanisms…

This research addresses two important developments in the academic field: First, universities are transforming into organisational actors, gaining more responsibilities and capacities for strategic action, and second, competition has reached a new level. An important driver of competition and universities' development towards strategic actorhood…

Many community colleges have an opening for the position of president and need to choose the best candidates to lead their organizations successfully in a dynamic and diverse higher education landscape. A review of existing literature revealed studies that have looked at programs preparing community college presidents, perspectives from community…

There is significant research on the president's role, but there is a lack of research on presidential transitions and direct experiences during those transitions. With the growing number of presidential transitions happening as the tenure of presidential tenure decreases, the importance of well-run presidential transitions becomes even more…

Competition in higher education is intensifying worldwide and gaining increasing scholarly attention. However, it is not always easy to observe how competition actually takes place. Our research focuses on one example where competition becomes not only visible but also analyzable: State-led funding contests exemplified by the Excellence Initiative…

The purpose of this qualitative study was to examine humility as a component of servant leadership by describing the perceptions and experiences of presidents and senior administrators at member institutions across the Association for Biblical Higher Education (ABHE). To accomplish this purpose, the researcher conducted interviews with a sample of…

This study examined how recently appointed, first-time public university presidents made sense of their new institution and position during their transition into their presidency. The information gained from these interviews is expected to illustrate how first-time public university presidents prepare, collect information, and learn about their…

Think you know what it takes to be an effective leader in higher education? You might be surprised. Why is it so difficult to find and hire college and university presidents? Perhaps search committees are recruiting in all the wrong places. In "The New College President," Terrence J. MacTaggart and Eileen B. Wilson-Oyelaran share the…

The nation's community colleges play a key role in addressing the need to expand and diversify the STEM technological workforce. However, significant barriers must be overcome for the programs to meet the increasing demand for skilled employees. The programs are expensive to establish and maintain; community colleges are generally underfunded;…

Vice Chancellors, Presidents, or Rectors occupy elite public positions in universities. A cursory glance of the roll call of names across elite universities ('top 100') globally reveals the dominance of white males. Research has given us some insight into the profiles of these senior leaders and their selection, but not with a particular focus on…

Higher education is going through a significant period of change following the COVID-19 pandemic. The increased technological capacity and desire for online modalities are both a great opportunity and a potentially challenging burden. Although they serve the most marginalized students, community colleges are often vastly under-resourced, leaving…

Students and faculty in higher education increasingly reflect more diverse backgrounds, but this diversity remains rare in many leadership roles. In Leading from the Margins, Mary Dana Hinton celebrates the unique strengths of marginalized individuals, inviting them to embrace their leadership potential and make a difference. Drawing from Hinton's…

In China, higher education institutions (HEIs) have a governance arrangement in which the university president and the party secretary occupy key roles. However, their legal roles as institutional leaders are vaguely specified in existing legal frameworks. Based on a four-dimensional theoretical model, this paper (i) clarifies the leadership roles…