Stepping up to Leadership in Higher Education

Abstract

Leadership in Higher Education is as yet an under-researched topic but one which is clearly coming to the forefront in current higher education literature. Universities are under as much pressure as other public funded entities to change and adapt to the challenges we face in the 21^st century. An important aspect of that change is to examine our conceptions of leadership and our identities as leaders and ask ourselves how we might make a stronger and more explicit contribution to developing the leaders of the future. On the one hand universities are charged with becoming more bureaucratic, more managerial with institutional leaders perhaps overly focused on performativity and revenue generation. On the other hand there are growing expectations of higher education to contribute more to society by strengthening its role in building leadership capacity and capability. This article explores different interpretations, viewpoints and epistemological approaches to leadership and leadership development and challenges readers to take more responsibility for engaging with the leadership literature and blending the scholarship of leadership and the scholarship of learning and teaching.