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…

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…

Department heads are central in the university setting as an important buffer between university leadership and academic staff. However, taking on a middle management role can lead to significant disruptions in academic careers. To investigate the career trajectories of 31 academics in middle management roles, two waves of semi-structured…

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…

While leadership development is acknowledged as essential for institutional growth in the higher education sector, it remains poorly understood and under researched both empirically and theoretically. Although knowledge in this area is growing in western contexts, there is little published data from the Arabic speaking world. This article…

The role of heads of schools or departments in universities has been described as complex and challenging. Despite growing calls for greater support for those in middle leadership roles, there has been little research on what effective preparation or support programmes look like. This article reports on an evaluation of a professional learning and…

This article uses resource-dependence theory to analyse how academic mid-level leaders in Finnish universities respond to their changing post-reform management environments. The 2010 university reform and subsequent university-specific management reforms have created new positions and roles for academic leaders. By identifying critical resources,…

This paper critically explores the opportunity for leadership development in higher education within an interpretative inquiry paradigm from the perspective of middle-level academics transitioning into leadership/management roles in Australian universities. Middle-level academics are described as being at a mid-point in their careers and…

Most scholarly work on internationalisation in Chinese higher education institutions has been conducted on top-level universities but prior research does not necessarily apply to regional universities that are pursuing a strategy of internationalisation and recruiting international students. This research has selected a Chinese regional university…

Research on management in higher education predominantly investigates senior staff such as Deans or Pro-Vice-Chancellors. Relatively little attention is focused on the department level, middle management roles, such as Associate Heads of Schools (AHoS). This case study, based on anecdotal scoping data, utilized a mixed-methods approach through an…

Middle leadership roles in higher education have been identified as important for institutional effectiveness yet fraught with tensions, and those in middle leadership roles often feel unprepared and unsupported. This study of the responsibilities, skills and competencies, and support required for heads of school in a New Zealand university, drew…

University middle leaders play a significant role in change management. While research examines the outcomes of change management, far less attention has been paid to how middle leaders develop agency and negotiate their identities in achieving these outcomes. This study presents the cases of two middle leaders in Shanghai enacting a curriculum…

The absence of women academics in the most senior ranks and leadership roles in higher education is both an international phenomenon and an enduring social justice issue. This article provides an original insight into the 'policy' response to the underrepresentation of women academics as senior leaders in three case-study universities in Hong…

This article focuses on the phenomenon of middle leadership in a university context and directs attention to the significance of learning as a central facet of leadership development. Drawing on the reflections of two of the authors as new middle leaders (chairpersons of departments), this article critically examines how middle leaders learn…

This article describes the use of benchmarking in universities in the Czech Republic and academics' experiences with it. It is based on research conducted among academics from economics schools in Czech public and private universities. The results identified several issues regarding the utilisation and understanding of benchmarking in the Czech…