This research investigated the implementation of accreditation at public teaching and research universities in Afghanistan. A qualitative multi-case study design was used to interview 46 individuals from five universities. The findings revealed that participants conceptualise quality assurance and accreditation as organisational sensemaking that…

The coronavirus pandemic has adversely affected all sectors globally including the education sector. Education institutes across all levels (preprimary, primary, secondary, and higher education) have closed in 188 countries across the globe. Prolonged closure of colleges and schools has forced the educational sector to adopt the online mode of…

Middle-level administrators in African universities are often under-utilised in terms of their contribution to the administrative support for learning and teaching. They also have little access to professional development. This paper presents the findings of a study to develop a programme to enable these administrators to enhance their support for…

Gender equity and women's access to senior leadership and management positions in universities are a major challenge not only in South Africa but on the African continent, too. For women to take up senior leadership roles more potently, it is essential that they not only cope with and compete in patriarchal systems but more so, are equipped to…

Pro-Vice-Chancellors (PVCs) form the second-tier leadership of UK higher education institutions. However, their role and position remain under-theorised and under-researched. The present article explores the extent to which a PVC Education role requires core expertise in education or generic managerial skills. Using a mixed-methods approach, we…

The Canadian population is aging; many are rapidly advancing towards the age of normal retirement (Miner, 2010). The demographics for Ontario colleges are similar; in 2009, 70 percent of administrators and faculty were baby boomers, and 40 percent of the workforce in the college sector was eligible for retirement (OCASA, 2009). In 2010, there were…

Managers at Spanish universities are having to deal with increasingly complex managerial tasks as a result of current changes in higher education. This paper presents the results of a study into the professional development of deans and department heads at universities in Catalonia. At management level, these universities are typically based on an…

There has been a significant increase in interest in the development of educational leadership in recent years, not least in the school sector. However, little research exists on how leaders in higher education have learnt to lead, particularly those in "middle-leadership" positions such as heads of faculties and departments. This study…

Universities should be developing female middle-managers for reasons of gender balance (Aitkin in "The Last Boilerhouse Address," Canberra University 2001), the skills shortage, pending mass retirements (Chesterman in "Not doable jobs? Exploring senior women's attitudes to leadership roles in universities." Women's Higher…

Academic leaders face particular challenges when they assume formal leadership roles in higher education. For the most part, they have had little prior engagement with the political, economic and strategic context of their institution and limited leadership networks on which to draw. The University of Western Australia has trialled a number of…

This publication describes a meeting of the Association of Commonwealth Universities (ACU) and the Commonwealth Higher Education Support Scheme (CHESS) to design an agenda to facilitate the advancement of women administrators in Commonwealth universities, to further use of their skills in contributing to university development, and to increasing…

Dutch university faculty and administrator participation in a complex organizational and management development system is described, and the use of management courses for administrator training is discussed with reference to three possible training program models. (MSE)

China's national medical universities are strategically managed by the public health ministry, with increasing decentralization in management and organizational operational planning and control. The universities do not have enough trained personnel to absorb the additional responsibilities, and need training in adapting Western-style management to…

This article explores the characteristics involved when higher education institutions (HEIs) engage in management training in smaller firms. Building on previous research on how smaller firms and small firm managers learn and how these learning characteristics relate to the dominating culture in HEIs, the article suggests a tentative framework…

The deficient preparation of Australian college faculty for participation in college administration is contrasted with evidence of increased administrator participation in professional development activities. The use of films to trigger opportunities for administrative development in peer group situations is discussed and evaluated by…