This study addresses the problem that senior academic administrators cannot perform the essential functions of their leadership positions in higher education. The purpose of this qualitative single case study was to explore the perceptions of senior academic administrators at a private university in northern Illinois regarding the necessary professional training for their leadership roles in higher education. In this qualitative single case study, the collaboration with senior academic administrators at one private university in the Midwest was bounded. Time and remote interviewing via the Zoom application, for example, became a research process boundary. Mezirow's transformative learning theory (TLT) was used to provide the conceptual framework for this study. TLT explored senior academic administrators' perceptions of the necessary professional training for their higher education leadership roles. Through semi-structured interviews, 10 senior academic administrators' experiences and perceptions were explored. Transcription data were entered into NVivo Pro, and thematic analysis was utilized to create themes related to the study's research questions. An analytical induction process was used to find patterns, codes, categories, and emergent themes from participants' transcripts. Results indicated that senior academic administrators would benefit from more training in various areas. Senior academic administrators must also develop various abilities and advocate for themselves, according to the findings. Furthermore, the findings revealed that many senior academic administrators do not take advantage of professional development training. Based on the findings and results of this study, future research could include more than one university. This can provide the researchers with a diversified population and data that is collected to characterize the phenomena and address the research questions, as well as a thorough understanding of an event, activity, or cultural context. It also opens up more opportunities in terms of data acquisition. [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.]