Public Higher Education (PHE) reflects a drastic reduction in funding to subsidize its day-to-day functioning, increasing dependence on tuition fees to be operational, the existence of outdated government funding policies, and the lack of a sustainable funding mechanism. Notwithstanding, the plethora of research attempting to understand different areas of leadership, limited efforts have been deployed to create an encompassing understanding of the lived experiences of leaders, as they navigate PHE funding. For this reason, this hermeneutic phenomenological study aimed to explore and describe the patterns of Senior Executive Leaders' (SEL) experience in relation to PHE funding given the reliance on limited resources. Due to these limitations, one can decide that there was a gap in the literature in relation to studies addressing this problem from the perspective of senior executive leaders who were directing Public Higher Education Institutions (PHEIs). Data collection included semi-structured in-depth interviews with five PHE Senior Executive Leaders. It was expected that the shared experiences will allow researchers and other leaders to get a better comprehension of the matter, enriching the existing literature. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://bibliotheek.ehb.be:2222/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]