Bullying, often considered an interpersonal or intergroup behaviour, has not been explored as an unintended artefact of organisational structure. Institutional review boards (IRBs), the 'human research ethics committees' at US universities, help oversee the protection of human research subjects, particularly in the social sciences within…

This article discusses some of the key challenges and points of tension pertaining to leadership in higher education in Kenya. Effective leadership approaches are discussed including an exploration of why effective leadership is more important in Kenyan public higher education now than ever. Given the complex context within which public higher…

This reflective essay presents a personal account of experiences and models that have shaped the development of the author as a leader in tertiary education. It is presented from the perspective of a practitioner whose career has led her through academic and administrative roles in Australian and UK institutions into her current position as…

Over the last 20 years, the tertiary education sector has adopted new administrative management approaches, with the aim of improving accountable and strategic focus. Over the same period, the question of how to build leadership capacity to improve learning and teaching and research outcomes has led to discussion on what constitutes academic…

University rankings are key drivers in national and institutional strategic planning. The increase in the number of university ranking systems and the diversity of methods and indicators used by these systems necessitate the development of an index that can measure a university's performance in all these systems at once. This article presents…

We begin this paper by outlining the "classical" debate on the idea of a university. We then proceed to show how this intellectual ideal has been compromised by successive processes of reform privileging paradigms of managerialism and commodification at the expense of intellectualism in shaping and defining UK higher education, with…

Advocating a customer focus, the Total Quality Management model of leadership has led to success in raising performance levels throughout various manufacturing and service industries. Many education stakeholders, however, are resistant to the notion that postsecondary students benefit from being treated like customers. While many critics oppose…

This article considers how higher education institutions change over time, using the United Kingdom system as an exemplar, and focusing on the 15-year period between 1994/95 and 2009/10. While there are many aspects of institutional change worthy of study, the focus here is on how institutions appear to others. Thus, the article examines the…

In recent years, in response to pressures to diversify their income, many British universities have established development and alumni relations offices. The creation of development offices illustrates how the internal environment of universities has been affected by the need for universities to meet challenges in the wider higher education…

In the United Kingdom higher education environment, government may make efforts to encourage institutions to engage in governance structures to secure policy objectives through a steering approach. In this article connections between skills governance structures and the recent Higher Education Funding Council for England workforce development…

This paper provides insight into distributed leadership by contrasting the oppositional messages found in the literature, and by examining differences in the rhetoric and reality associated with its application. Specifically, the treatment of power and accountability within the distributed leadership theoretical framework is difficult to…

Students' adjustment to the university environment is an important factor in predicting university outcomes and is crucial to their future achievements. University support to students' transition to university life can be divided into three dimensions: academic adjustment, social adjustment and psychological adjustment. However, these…

This paper presents a practitioner's view on student system implementations in the Australian university sector. A student information system is a core system of any university and integral to its operations and services to students. These systems are constantly on the list of major projects and at any point in time, a university is either…

In this paper, the salient characteristics of the French higher education system are examined in the light of its recent evolution and in the context of overwhelming Europeanisation trends. In spite of major weaknesses still hindering the performance of French universities, it is argued that following the recent wave of reforms, the country is…

New models of leadership are needed for the higher education sector to continue to graduate students with leading edge capabilities. While multiple theories of leadership exist, the higher education sector requires a less hierarchical approach that takes account of its specialised and professional context. Over the last decade the sector has…