Global university president leadership characteristics and dynamics

Abstract

This exploratory paper articulates the development, characteristics and nature of global university presidents and their leadership. It draws insights from a growing project which so far has involved in-depth interviews with 18 presidents of major globally focused universities. Analysing and reporting these interview results reveals the enigmatic world of presidential leadership broadens this field of research beyond the Anglosphere, helps build interpretative frameworks and perspectives, and furnished insights for guiding leadership development. The exploratory findings reinforce the particular value of studying university presidents, as these people have enormous authority, expertise and prominence.

Are university leaders always the same? A longitudinal analysis of Vice-chancellors’ profile in English universities over the last twenty years

“…Similarly, the American College and President Study (2017) shows that 85% of universities/colleges presidents' previous position was a senior executive role in HE. Previous studies generally support this expectation for the UK context (Smith et al 1999;Bargh et al 2000;Breakwell and Tytherleigh 2008) but not only (Zarate 2007;Engwall 2014;Huang 2017;Liu et al 2020;Karadag 2021). A first hypothesis can thus be formulated as follows:…”

“…Having leaders with such a profile would enrich the strategic direction of a university with new perspectives, potentially favouring institutional collaborations (Middlehurst, 2008). In this regard, previous studies have illustrated how the impact of internationalization on VC's profile has predominantly occurred among more prestigious universities (Karadag 2021;Liu et al 2020). A final hypothesis can be formulated as follows:…”

“…Against this backdrop, the influence of NM and internationalization on university leaders has been mainly focused on the needs, role and style of academic leaders in top/middle management (Deem 2004;Middlehurst 2008;Meek et al 2010;Tran and Nghia 2020;Badillo-Vega et al 2021), while their profile has been less investigated. The term "profile" indicates a set of individual characteristics such as sociodemographic features, education background, type of working career/experiences (Sloper 1985;Bargh et al 2000;Zarate 2007;Breakwell and Tytherleigh 2008;Liu et al 2020), and research productivity (Goodall 2006, Karadag 2021.…”

Leading the way–Understanding women’s university leadership during crisis through a feminist educational leadership lens

“…heads of institutional leadership are expected to represent the institution's values and ideals in their communication, actions, and overall leadership (Liu et al, 2020;Coates et al, 2021). At the same time, their leadership spans like an umbrella over the HEI in its totality, including all stakeholders and their wants and needs.…”

Liderazgo universitario: un análisis cualitativo del estilo de liderazgo de rectores

“…Sin embargo, este se diferencia según las características que dan forma a cada organización y a su naturaleza específica. Numerosos estudios discuten el papel de los líderes empresariales, y cada vez más la literatura en educación superior aborda el estudio de este fenómeno en las universidades (Erickson et al, 2020;Graham & Donaldson, 2019;Liu et al, 2020;López Zárate, 2007;Moreno-Socorro & Urquiza, 2020). A pesar de esto, todavía hay muy pocos estudios referidos a aspectos específicos de los rectores universitarios (Badillo-Vega et al, 2021), pues este análisis se ha centrado principalmente en consideraciones teóricas o en las características sociodemográficas de los rectores.…”