This article first presents a historical examination of leadership and leadership research in higher education, placing it in the context of increasing interest and activity in relation to leadership and leadership development across various public sector bodies in the UK. It then examines why research (on leadership, management and governance) is regarded as an important activity for the Leadership Foundation for Higher Education and what role it plays in the Foundation's agenda. A brief overview of the research commissioned between 2005 and 2008 is presented and questions — `is there something special and different about leadership in higher education?' and `how has the Leadership Foundation for Higher Education research contributed to policy, practice and development?' — are discussed. The article concludes by consideration of the role of research in mediating between political and institutional perspectives on leadership in higher education.

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Students in so called 'parallel' clerkships did not receive comparable teaching. The traditional opportunistic nature of clinical teaching led, in effect, to individual curricula within each clerkship. The General Medical Council has called for a core curriculum to be delivered across different clinical sites within each medical school. To achieve this, medical schools may need to introduce guidelines to direct teaching in the same way that clinical protocols have been developed to achieve greater standardization in clinical practice.

Involving teachers and organizations which have not traditionally contributed to medical education raises philosophical issues around the aims and rationale of their involvement and practical issues such as gaining curriculum time, recruiting suitable teachers and gaining credibility for the courses. We analyse the benefits and difficulties inherent in broadening the curriculum in this way and assess the lessons our experience provides for the future expansion of such learning, both locally and nationally.

This article focuses on the theory and practice of teamwork in 'top management teams' in UK higher education institutions. It is informed by some of the key findings from a recent two-year research project sponsored by the Leadership Foundation for Higher Education that investigated the different ways in which UK higher education institutions organise their 'top management ' and 'senior management' structures (Kennie and Woodfield, 2008). The authors discuss literature from the corporate and higher education sectors on the meaning of 'teamwork' in top teams (e.g. Bensimon and Neumann, 1993;Katzenbach, 1998;Wageman et al., 2008) and relate the findings to the challenges of top level team working in higher education settings. Particular issues discussed include: the terminology related to higher education top teams, areas of decisionmaking and time-management, team orientation and agenda setting, team behaviours and team roles, team performance and evaluation, location, logistical support and resources, and team development.The authors conclude that the challenges of top team working in higher education settings are similar to those found in the corporate sector, albeit nuanced by different organisational cultures, and suggest some key principles to help top teams in higher education institutions improve their ability to work effectively together. Introduction and background