| Unit name | Leadership and Management in Higher Education |
|---|---|
| Unit code | EDUCM0115 |
| Credit points | 20 |
| Level of study | M/7 |
| Teaching block(s) |
Teaching Block 2 (weeks 13 - 24) |
| Unit director | Professor. Watermeyer |
| Open unit status | Not open |
| Units you must take before you take this one (pre-requisite units) |
None |
| Units you must take alongside this one (co-requisite units) |
None |
| Units you may not take alongside this one |
None |
| School/department | School of Education |
| Faculty | Faculty of Social Sciences and Law |
Why is this unit important?
Higher Education Leadership and Management is about the working realities of higher education systems and institutions, particularly the latter, through the lens of research and scholarship. It introduces key concepts, methods and texts used to understand policy, governance, leadership, management, and academics and other professionals. It considers institutions both as ‘brands’ and as communities with plural identities and interests, combining (not always smoothly) institutional purposes and strategies, and identity in autonomous units. It tracks variations in the ‘Idea of a University’ over time and place and looks at how institutions evolve and respond to changes in their environment, including growth, the multiplication of stakeholders and roles, and financial pressures and crises. While higher education everywhere is nested in national society and culture, and all issues of institutional organisation are contextualised to the institution itself, problems of leadership and management in many respects are common problems. The UK case is used to illustrate leadership, management and government and higher education elsewhere in the Anglosphere, China, Europe and the global South is also referenced. Students are encouraged to situate their class contributions in both overarching principles and their systems of origin.
How does this unit fit into your programme of study
This unit will significantly expand upon more wide-ranging themes tackled in Global Higher Education, and provide a more concentrated and in-depth focus on the mechanics of leadership and management as core activities, functions and influencers that impact and shape higher education communities. The unit considers how universities contribute to societal transformation and are themselves transformed by those in positions of organisational power. It concurrently assesses the various exogenous and endogenous factors which impact upon institutional decision-making, strategic choices and planning, institutional trajectories and variations of organisational success and/or failure through which leadership is judged.
Overview of content
The unit will provide an introduction to key ideas pertaining to leadership and management in higher education. It will focus on key concerns such as processes of institutional and performance-based stratification both within and across national and international tertiary systems. The organisational evolution of higher education will also be considered into which will fold notions of the university as an ivory tower, national flagship, knowledge corporation and as being world class. Systems of control in the regulation and management of universities through government policy and corporate behaviouralism will be addressed as change dynamics altering the nature and scope of what universities do. Relatedly, the unit will draw on theories and empirical accounts of managerial professionalisation and the institutionalisation of leadership; paradigms of leadership; leadership as corresponds to priorities of financialisation, academic professionalism and professional change; and leadership amidst identity politics and identities in flux.
How will students, personally, be different as a result of the unit
You will have mastered new knowledge pertaining to matters of leadership and management in global higher education settings and augmented their critical reasoning and analytical skills in reference to exogenous and endogenous factors assembling and impacting the core priorities of universities and the organisation towards these through formal management and leadership structures.
Learning outcomes
By the end of this unit students will be able to:
The unit will be taught using a combination of lectures and seminars.
Tasks which help you learn and prepare you for summative tasks (formative):
In small groups, you will act as commentating rapporteurs, reporting back in plenary summary overviews of the prior week’s learning including a reflection on in-class discussion.
You will be invited to register and vote on what you perceive, based upon your pre-set reading, to be the core problematic of weekly themes. This will latterly segue into end-of class focused discussion.
You will be invited to participate in a ‘gold-fish bowl’ discussion, with interchangeable discussant and observers engaged in focused conversation on what counts as successful higher education leadership.
All activities are designed to scaffold students in the development of skills necessary for successful completion of the summative assignment i.e. critical thinking/reasoning, knowledge and scholarly engagement, argument development etc. ILO5 will be scaffolded throughout all formative exercises, which are all explicitly participatory.
Tasks which count towards your unit mark (summative):
A 4,000 word essay (100%, ILOs 1-4)
When assessment does not go to plan
When a student fails the unit and is eligible to resubmit, failed components will be reassessed on a like-for-like basis
If this unit has a Resource List, you will normally find a link to it in the Blackboard area for the unit. Sometimes there will be a separate link for each weekly topic.
If you are unable to access a list through Blackboard, you can also find it via the Resource Lists homepage. Search for the list by the unit name or code (e.g. EDUCM0115).
How much time the unit requires
Each credit equates to 10 hours of total student input. For example a 20 credit unit will take you 200 hours
of study to complete. Your total learning time is made up of contact time, directed learning tasks,
independent learning and assessment activity.
See the University Workload statement relating to this unit for more information.
Assessment
The assessment methods listed in this unit specification are designed to enable students to demonstrate the named learning outcomes (LOs). Where a disability prevents a student from undertaking a specific method of assessment, schools will make reasonable adjustments to support a student to demonstrate the LO by an alternative method or with additional resources.
The Board of Examiners will consider all cases where students have failed or not completed the assessments required for credit.
The Board considers each student's outcomes across all the units which contribute to each year's programme of study. For appropriate assessments, if you have self-certificated your absence, you will normally be required to complete it the next time it runs (for assessments at the end of TB1 and TB2 this is usually in the next re-assessment period).
The Board of Examiners will take into account any exceptional circumstances and operates
within the Regulations and Code of Practice for Taught Programmes.
