Every college president's success depends on building good relationships with outside groups, whether donors, alumni, or legislators. Presidents of Roman Catholic colleges have one more party to please: the local bishop. In recent months, the bishop of Scranton, Pennsylvania, asked colleges in his diocese to assure him that they were not providing…

A university, similar to any other organization, has an immune system that erects a powerful barrier against change. This article discusses the university immune system and what can be done to counteract its negative effects and thereby allow change to occur.

Intertwined trends of massification, internationalisation and marketisation constitute and drive change in higher education at all levels. Consequences at the institutional level include: increased competition, adoption of corporate management forms, accrual of power to executive management, and greater emphasis on strategy. As Government policy…

More than 50 years ago, two men on a train made a stop at W.K. Kellogg Foundation, to share their vision for community colleges. Thus began a partnership that has advanced the community college mission by supporting the visionary leaders at the helm of American Association of Community Colleges from 1958 to 2010. In April 2011, W.K. Kellogg and…

It is not unusual in higher education circles to talk about issues affecting the campus. Experts might write about how shifting demographics are changing the campus, or say technology is becoming more pervasive on campus. The campus itself evolves alongside pedagogical practices, technological innovations, student needs, and the mission of the…

For five years, the author has been advocating a writing program administrator (WPA) position at his two-year college. While the vice president of instruction has been sympathetic, the issue has been funding. As a means to prepare and to justify the WPA's continuing existence, he has set to work mapping out the terrain, trying to anticipate the…

This paper adds to earlier reviews by the author of the changing roles and identities of contemporary professional staff in UK higher education, and builds on a categorisation of professional staff identities as having "bounded", "cross-boundary" and "unbounded" characteristics. Drawing on a study of 54 professional…

Until very recently, American universities were led mainly by their faculties, which viewed intellectual production and pedagogy as the core missions of higher education. Today, as Benjamin Ginsberg warns in this eye-opening, controversial book, "deanlets"--administrators and staffers often without serious academic backgrounds or experience--are…

Oregon State University, a land-grant institution with an enrollment of almost 20,000, has been shaken by controversies over both blackface and a noose in the past year. The incidents here, however, were not seen as clear-cut expressions of racial animus, for which specific people should be held accountable, so much as acts of ignorance and…

Popular thought supports the notion that faculty expectations of technical college administrators appear to be linked to the success or failure of an institution at accomplishing its mission. These expectations provide the basis for the development of relationships that foster the growth of technical training and thus the growth of a skilled…

The collegiality of earlier days, when provosts and other academic officers could engage educators and students on issues such as what knowledge a graduate should possess or which great books all students should read has given way to concerns about institutional competitiveness, enrollment management issues, unfunded mandates from state and…

One of America's great strengths is its system of higher education comprising diverse and dynamic institutions governed by boards as varied as the institutions themselves. These boards are most often composed of lay people--not educators--who volunteer their time and energy in support of institutions they care about deeply. To govern these…

UK higher education is undergoing a period of significant change that generates a series of tensions and difficulties for universities and university leaders. This paper explores these tensions through analysis of findings from a study comprising 152 semi-structured face-to-face interviews in 12 UK universities. Building on from theories of…

The purpose of this research was to explore the paths taken by individuals who hold administrative positions in post-secondary honors education programs. The research sought common professional and educational experiences that current honors education program administrators believe prepared them for the position. This study included the…

The leadership roles of pro-vice-chancellors (PVCs) in the United Kingdom and elsewhere have evolved markedly over the last three decades while universities have been encouraged to shift towards more executive styles of leadership and decision-making. The change does not only reflect changing institutional needs, however, but an accommodation of…