Academic Leadership: Concept, Attributes and Practices
Amarendra Pani*
Leadership is one of the most discussed aspects
in higher education systems across the globe today.
Many of the issues in higher education in general and
developing countries in particular stems from academic
and organizational leadership. It is the efficiency,
dynamism, vision and personal as well professional
acumen of the leader that largely determines the success
of institutions. Leadership has been increasingly
recognized as an issue of paramount concern owing to
the fact that universities are the complex organizations
in which the person in leadership position confronts
with challenges in several fronts. On the one front the
leader has to deal with a diversified cohorts of people
constituting academic, administrative, technical and
other supporting staff and students as well, on the other
hand he/she has to deal with complexities of
administration, finance, and academic and a plethora
of other issues in managing the university. Since the
traditional character of the universities is changing at
a fast pace, there is a substantial change in the role and
responsibility of academic leaders. Consequently, there
is an intense pressure of preparing the leaders to cope
up with the developments ushering into the arena of
higher education. This needs an understanding of the
dynamics of university administration as well as the
concept of leadership. One of the key attributes of an
academic leader is the capacity to effect change and
transform the vision into reality of accomplishing the
stated goals. Nevertheless, the leader has to understand
the nitty-gritty of the institution he is engaged with
while keeping in mind the fact that academic
institutions especially the universities are the most
conservative institutions where resistance to changes
is found to be a common factor. In the past few decades,
especially with the advent of Globalization, universities
either are operating or preparing themselves to operate
in global-knowledge society. There is a need for the
leaders to understand and accept that their products,
essentially the graduates, must be trained appropriately
and made to be equipped with the knowledge,
understanding and skills of coping with global
challenges without losing sight of the local and national
priorities. In this paper, an attempt has been made to
correlate the concept of Leadership in general and the
Leadership attributes required for the leaders of higher
*Editor, University News, Association of Indian Universities,
16, Comrade Indrajit Gupta Marg, New Delhi-110002
UNIVERSITY NEWS, 55(49) DECEMBER 04-10, 2017
education. Essential components of a training
programme of university leaders has also been
visualized to reorient the academic leaders to resurface
their abilities in this fast changing dynamics of the
higher education.
Concept of ‘leader’ and ‘lead’ are very old. History
substantiates the fact that we had model leaders ever
since the beginning of civilization who lead the masses
during social crises and in the process of development
from one stage to another. Thus ‘lead’ and ‘leader’ are
the root words from which the concept of leadership
was derived and therefore most of the definitions have
focused on a single person and his or her personal
qualities and skills. Individual traits, abilities, and
sources of power were considered as the parameters
on how a leader will be able to influence others. In the
primary definitions, the Leadership was defined as the
skill of a person to influence an individual or a group
for achievement of a goal. Thus the interpersonal skill
of a person to influence others was the only aspect
which was considered as criterion of leadership in
ancient times. Upholding this as the key point, the
concept of leadership traversed in many directions,
adding many more dimensions to it with change of time.
With the advancement of civilization the role of a
leader extended to almost all walks of life ranging from
social life to occupational and organizational life, from
local level to global level. Consequently, the issue has
become a subject of profound interest and profuse
thinking. Definition of Leadership now holds in its
ambit a more complex concept than the primary
definitions which lay emphasis only on traits of a
person. In fact, contemporary definitions often reject
the idea that leadership revolves around the leader
alone. They consider leadership as interaction among
the people involved in the process—both leader and
followers influencing each other in a given situation
for achievement of a goal.
Latest Perspective on Leadership and New
Leadership Theories
Rapid and vigorous advances in the society,
specially, as an outcome of Information and
Communication Technology (ICT) and Liberalisation,
Privatisation and Globalisation (LPG) compelled a shift
in the concept of leadership from classical role where
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a leader has to have an impact on events through setting
goals, controlling execution and monitoring outcomes.
This perspective is applicable in stable environments
with low level of complexity and where processes can
be mechanized. In conditions of ambiguity, rapid
changes, high complexity, incomplete information and
where core processes cannot be easily automated, the
leadership task is different. Real potential of leadership
is proved when the leader is able to excel in situations
that are difficult to define. Leadership task according
to Middlehurst (2008) is to mobilize expertise and
generate novel solutions for difficult and rapidly
changing situations. New theories of leadership which
came into vogue among others are Transformational
Leadership and Systemic Leadership.
Transformational Leadership
Burns (1978) founded the theory of
transformational leadership. In transformational
leadership, the main ideas is that when a job, or the
environment around the followers fail to create and
maintain due motivations or satisfaction, the leader will
take action through clarification and explanation of the
functional criteria by creation of a common vision or
horizon. In this type of leadership the relationship
between the leader and the follower is beyond a simple
give-and-take one because both leader and the follower
reach at same level of motivation to achieve the targeted
goal. According to Burns, a transformational leader
causes and creates such transformation in the followers
through the values like liberty, justice and equality, etc.
Such leaders elevate their followers to a higher level
of morality and spirituality. The axis of transformational
leadership according to Burns is to lead people to self
improvement. Higher Education Institutions deal with
academics and in academics everybody is needs to be
considered as equals. Therefore, they require
Transformational Leaders.
Systemic Leadership
Systemic Leadership is a concept that indicates
that if leaders want to create organizations that thrive
in the face of change, they can do so through managing
organizations using natural systems theory. According
to natural systems theory, all the parts of a system are
interdependent and cannot remain in isolation. A system
is a group of interacting, interrelated, and inter-
dependent components that form a complex and unified
whole. Systems are everywhere—for example, the
R&D department in any organization, the circulatory
system in our body, the predator/prey relationships in
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nature (Ecosystem), the ignition system of a car,
feedback system of refrigerator and so on. Ecological
systems and human social systems are living systems;
human-made systems such as cars, refrigerators and
washing machines are nonliving systems.
Living bodies are natural systems which are
composed of several subsystems like nervous system,
digestive system, excretory system, etc. which are
mutually interdependent. When we build accountability
at a holistic level, we are operating in a systemic world
view. For example, when a cardiologist prescribes heart
medication, he keeps in mind how that medication is
going to influence other areas of the patient’s body. If
they affect kidneys the doctor will talk to a kidney
doctor before pumping the patient with drugs. If the
doctor does not take ample care the patient will die. If
the patient dies then everyone fails. In medicine -
thinking systemically is part of the game. Similarly in
systemic leadership, thinking systemically is inevitable.
Higher Education institutions are the living
organizations and each aspect of it is interdependent
on the other. Therefore, it requires systemic leadership
also.
Leadership Pattern in Indian Higher Education
System
Higher education system in India is constituted
of universities and institutions of national importance.
Among universities again there are different types
depending upon several criteria like central universities
and state universities; affiliating universities and unitary
universities; deemed universities, women universities,
discipline specific universities like technical
universities, medical universities, etc. whatever be the
type of university, the organizational structure is more
or less same. In India University Grants Commission
(UGC) and Association of Indian Universities are the
apex bodies of higher education which provide
leadership to the universities and other higher education
institutions in different dimensions. In addition to these,
there are several councils like All India Council for
Technical Education for technical higher education of
the country, Medical Council of India for Medical
Education, etc. Generally, in case of Central
Universities the President of India is the Visitor who
plays the role of the top leader, and in case of state
universities, it is the Governor of the State who plays
top leadership role as the Chancellor.
At institutional level, the Vice Chancellor/Director
is the executive head of the university and therefore
UNIVERSITY NEWS, 55(49) DECEMBER 04-10, 2017
he/she is the kingpin of University administration and
all academic influence and administrative powers are
concentrated in him/her. Since the office of the Visitor
or Chancellor has very limited role, it is the Vice
Chancellor who provides leadership to the staff
(Administrative as well as academic) and students of
the university. Though it is an administrative post, a
Vice Chancellor is generally selected from academic
community as he/she has to lead the academic
institution. For administrative staff of the university,
Registrar is second in command and for academic staff;
Deans of each discipline are second in command. Many
universities have provision of appointing Pro Vice
Chancellors each responsible for a specific portfolio.
Pro Vice Chancellor, if present in a university forms
the core element of second leadership tier, carrying the
delegated authority of the Vice Chancellor in order to
lead the university’s activities. In that case, Registrar
and Deans form the third tier of leadership. Like Vice
Chancellor, Pro Vice Chancellor is also generally from
academics background. Registrar is generally from
administrative background. This forms the core team
of apex leadership in the universities/higher education
institutions.
Attributes of Higher Education Leaders
Vice Chancellor is the administrative and academic
head of the university. He is responsible for smooth
functioning of the university. He has to coordinate
different categories of functionaries in the university
system viz. the teachers, the administrators and the
students. He has to work under various pressures both
from inside as well as outside the university, specially
the government and politicians. The image of a university
is made by the leadership of the Vice Chancellor. Prof
M V Pylee in his article ‘Reforms in Higher Education’
published in the University News, Volume 33, No 43
quoted Clark Kerr, President of university of California
and Herman B. Wells, President of Indiana University
to depict the characteristics which a University VC
should posses. As per Clark Kerr, “A Vice Chancellor
should be firm and gentle, sensitive to others but
insensitive to himself, have vision, affability, broad
perspective and be a seeker of truth where the truth may
not hurt too much. He should sound like a mouse at
home but roar like a lion abroad.” In words of Herman
B. Wells, “A Vice Chancellor should be born with the
physical strength of a Greek athlete, the cunning of a
Machiavelli, the wisdom of a Solomon, the courage of
a lion, if possible. But, in any case he must be born
with the stomach of a goat!”
UNIVERSITY NEWS, 55(49) DECEMBER 04-10, 2017
Leadership Attributes of a Vice Chancellor
Some of the attributes which an effective Vice
Chancellor should possess to be a good leader are:
• An able Vice Chancellor is he who is able to create
healthy academic environment where students,
teachers and researchers feel that they have a place
in the university.
• A good Vice Chancellor should be endowed with
academic as well as administrative acumen and
competence, congeniality and tact in behaviour and
a demonstrable uprightness and moral character.
He should be a sound academician with flair for
administration.
• A competent and efficient Vice Chancellor
exercises a positive impact on students and staff of
the university as well as of affiliated colleges and
should pay special attention to the welfare of the
students, staff and community.
• Apart from its own employees and students, Vice
Chancellor should make the impact of the university
on the community surrounding it.
• He / She should be a sound decision maker and
therefore should posses the qualities of foresight,
clarity, quick action, honesty, and impartial attitude
and independence.
• Vice Chancellor has regulatory and developmental
roles to play and both are equally important so the
Vice Chancellor should have expertise in time
management.
• Vice Chancellor should act as motivator whose
touch should inspire people to do their best.
• Vice Chancellor should have profound knowledge
of the university system, a vision of academic
future, empathy with members of the university
community, a relationship of understanding with
government, cordiality with the community, a
missionary zeal and high level of integrity. He
should be able to understand nonhierarchical nature
of the university and should provide leadership
which can prevent drift towards mediocrity.
• Vice Chancellor should be resilient and able to
respond effectively to the influences and pressures
of a dynamic and turbulent environment.
• Vice Chancellor should not only be able to convert
every challenge into opportunity but also be a model
in this aspect to the faculty, staff and teachers of
the university.
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• A Vice Chancellor should be aboveboard and
meticulous.
• Should be strictly observing rules and immune to
influence.
• A Vice Chancellor has to operate amidst
innumerable influences and pressures and only a
brave person with strong conviction can withstand
these.
• Vice Chancellor should have high moral character
and caliber and good conduct in public and private
life. And unblemished image as an individual and
a scholar is most desired from a Vice Chancellor.
• Vice Chancellor should secure consent by winning
the heart of staff and students not as a boss but as a
persuader.
• The Vice Chancellor as leader of higher education
must embrace change, direct it, and recognize that
it has positive, negative, and unanticipated
consequences. He/she must manage change just like
any other managerial challenge, and must recognize
that new markets require completely new
organizational—and business—models.
Leadership Attributes of a Teacher
Excellence in Teaching: Since the universities
are academic institutions, first and foremost attribute
which a university teacher as leader should posses is
excellence in teaching. Leadership associated with
excellent teaching is multifaceted.
Establishing Credibility and Trust: University
teachers have to establish their credibility as leaders of
teaching. They should be easily accessible, open to
other’s views, well informed and up-to-date.
Converting Problems into opportunities: Instead
of covering or ignoring the deep-rooted problems, the
university teachers should consult a range of
stakeholders and make a collective effort to diagnose
and solve the problem.
Dispersing Leadership: Instead of managing
everything on their own, the effective teachers as
leaders should disperse the leadership responsibility
on a number of people by delegating authority and
support.
Building a Community of Practice: Developing
excellent teaching and maintaining that excellence
usually involve a great deal of talking about teaching.
For this, initiatives like weekly discussions and other
forums need to be created.
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Recognizing and rewarding excellent teaching
and teaching development effort: The value placed
on teaching need to be made explicit often through
formal means to recognize it. Effective leaders should
organize teaching awards and events where teaching
excellence is celebrated and made visible through
personal endorsement of colleagues who were helping
lead change and improve practice.
Marketing the Department or the Institution as
a Success: Universities or institutions generally gain
reputation through their culture of excellence but in
some cases this involve public relations and marketing
skills. An effective leader in a university builds up a
sense of belongingness about the institution and makes
the staff proud to be in an excellent institution and
appreciate their role in creating that excellence.
Supporting Change and Innovation: Teachers
should know how to plan and bring about change
strategically. They pay attention to build consensus
about a vision, mobilize stake holders, deal with
dissenters, allocate resources, embed successful
innovations in routine practice. Some times a minority
of rebels can simply create hurdles for the change. A
strategic leader is fully aware of these risks and
therefore is equipped with the ways to minimize or
bypass them. In universities, such type of situations
are very common.
Students Participation: Effective teachers do not
delimit student’s involvement just to the level of student
feedback. They involve students in course planning
committees and review process and discuss with them
possible solutions for deep rooted problems. They
employ students as peer tutors in implementing new
pedagogies and use them as collaborative evaluators
of innovations.
Special Challenges for Leaders of Indian Higher
Education Institutions
Indian higher education system is the third largest
higher education system in world with about 800
universities and 3,33,0000 students (2016-17). India
is country with diversity of culture. Apart from quantity,
diversity is also a big challenge in the country. Apart
from managing quantity and diversity, other challenges
in Indian higher education system are to ensure quality,
equity, access, uniformity, and relevance. The key
dimensions of university education are teaching,
research and extension. In order to combat the
challenges posed in each of these dimensions there are
UNIVERSITY NEWS, 55(49) DECEMBER 04-10, 2017
certain strategies which the leaders of higher
educational institutes should follow. Some of these
strategies are being discussed here.
Strategies for the Leaders to Combat Teaching
Challenges
• Involving the whole staff in deliberating on goals,
beliefs, and visions of the institution at the
beginning of the year and preparing annual action
plan collectively.
• Visiting each classroom every day; encourage
teachers to visit one another’s classes and make
unbiased assessment of teaching.
• Regular curricular revisions should be made to
assess the relevance of the curriculum for the
respective batch of students.
• Help teachers work smarter by actively seeking
different interpretations and checking out
assumptions;
• Placing individual problems in the larger
perspective of the whole institution;
• Using action research teams or school improvement
teams as a way of sharing power. Giving everyone
responsibilities and involving staff in governance
functions. Involving non-participators by making
them in charge of various committees.
• Finding good things that are happening and publicly
recognizing the work of staff and students who have
contributed to the improvement of the institution.
• Writing private notes to teachers expressing
appreciation for special efforts.
• Surveying the staff often about their wants and
needs. Being receptive to teachers’ attitudes and
philosophies. Using active listening and showing
care and concern towards the staff.
• Encouraging teachers to experiment new ideas and
promote creativity and commitment.
• Due to emergence of Information and
communication technology, several new concepts
like atomization, e-learning, e governance,
technology-supported teaching-learning process etc
have emerged. Organizing workshops to the
institutions where the staff can comfortably learn
the new trends. Sharing the information with staff
on conferences attended and new things learnt.
Getting teachers to share their learning and
experiences with one another.
UNIVERSITY NEWS, 55(49) DECEMBER 04-10, 2017
• Orienting new staff actively involving them in
decision-making.
• Recruiting teachers on the basis of merit and after
assessing that they have a commitment to
collaboration.
• Sharing equal responsibility with teachers, students
and staff to exploit their potentialities and becoming
the best in all ways.
• Using eclectic mechanisms to support teachers,
such as finding money for a project or providing
time for collaborative planning during the workday.
• Protecting teachers from the problems of limited
time, excessive paperwork, and demands from other
agencies.
• Enabling everybody realize that they are
responsible for all students, not just their own
classes.
Strategies for the Leaders to Combat Research
Challenges
The main purpose of a university according to
Kothari Commission (1964) is to deepen man’s
understanding of the universe and of himself, body,
mind and sprit, and to disseminate this understanding
throughout society and to apply it in the service of
mankind. This purpose is achieved only when the
universities pay equal attention to teaching and
research. But in India, the dimension of research is not
getting required attention and therefore, the research
environment is either deteriorating or totally missing
in most of the universities. Several factors contribute
to this situation, increasing burden of large number of
students, universities being least sensitive to the
research needs, want of sufficient number of quality
teachers who have research aptitude, unattractive
remuneration offered by universities, particularly, to
the Research Staff are to name a few. However, to
activate research dimension of the university following
strategies need to adopted:
• To create conducive research environment in the
universities by continuously inducing the teachers
through workshops, projects, seminars etc.
• Strict quality auditing of the research contributions
of the teachers as well as students.
• Thorough knowledge of various funding agencies
and good rapport with them.
• To keep updated information about special schemes
offered by various agencies like UGC, CSIR,
ICSSR and other international agencies.
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• To have knowledge of citation index and agencies
who maintain citation index.
• Signing MoUs with leading national and
international research agencies.
• Share and discuss research proposals with the staff
and propose questions for staff to think and asking
them to write research proposals.
• To create special avenues for research activities.
• To give rewards to those who have produced good
piece of work
• To give special incentive to the staff who generate
maximum funds.
• To publish the research reports and publicize them
• To take patents for original research.
Decision Making Role of Higher Education
Leaders
Decision making is one of the inevitable
components of any system or organization and therefore
higher education system and universities are not out of
it. For example varied decisions such as what courses
to be offered, what curriculum should be prescribed,
what kind of faculty to be recruited and so on and so
forth. Overall responsibility of governance of higher
education system in India and therefore the decision
making is vested with the government. In India,
education is in the concurrent list so both, the statement
government as well as central government are
responsible for it and therefore the decision making
power is vested with both of them. At government level
mainly decisions regarding policies, finances and
governance are made.
In an institute responsibility of decision making
is distributed among those who constitute the system.
For example in a university the Vice Chancellor is the
topmost authority and is vested with highest authority
of making decisions. From Vice Chancellor down the
lane a hierarchy of authorities make decisions. Next to
Vice Chancellor, registrars, deans, directors and all
those who are at the second tier are involved in decision
making process. From there it percolates down. But
the Vice Chancellor has to endorse all the major
decisions for their implementation. Thus, on the whole
it is a centralized process.
The delicacy of the university system is that it
has to deal with young students and shape their destiny,
vis a vis the destiny of the nation. So it has to be very
careful in decision making process, any wrong decision
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may prove to be detrimental. Looking at the scenario
the Gajandragadkar Commission made the following
observation: “The administrative wing of the university
has to function in a human and imaginative manner
and statutory bodies of the university should be so
organized as to give the academics full freedom and
latitude to meet the changing requirements of modern
society.”
Therefore, there is a need for more
decentralization in the administrative set up.
Decentralization of decision making as strategy for
educational management is of recent origin. It is
considered as new mantra of good governance. As
mentioned earlier, decision making is done at two levels
in the field of higher education, one at the level of
system and the other at the level of institution. All these
days higher education was considered as responsibility
of the government towards society. But with the
emergence of neo-liberalism and economic
globalization the government started sharing this
responsibility with other agencies. This paradigm shift
resulted in policies like deregulation, privatization
leading to decentralization in which administrations
rearranged the roles, relation and responsibilities of
state, market and society. Decentralization or devolving
of decision making powers is being done by moving
tasks and powers from central to local bodies. For
example, in India many affiliated colleges are being
converted into autonomous colleges. Each autonomous
college is free to prescribe its courses of study, syllabi,
combination of subjects, admission of students and
recruitment of staff etc. Universities with large
campuses are establishing sub-campuses which are
autonomous with broad guidelines laid down by the
university.
Major advantage of decentralization is shortening
the distance between the government and the
organization in charge of implementation.
Decentralization stems from the view that central
authorities which are situated at some distance from
the educational institutions are not capable of taking
stock of specific situations at institutions therefore it
is better if the institution itself makes decisions within
parameters set by the government. In institutional
context decentralization involves delegating the
decision making roles to all those who are involved in
the process of leadership. The institutional leaders in
position of power act in specific ways that leave space
for others to share power, make decisions, and take
responsibility for their decisions.
UNIVERSITY NEWS, 55(49) DECEMBER 04-10, 2017
 In the context of universities, the power should
be delegated to the deans, heads of the departments,
and faculties. Constitution of departmental committees
with adequate powers of decision making to deal with
matters of admission, research, budget etc can enable
the universities to become world class ones.
Decentralization is not an easy thing. There are tensions
and contradictions bound up with such an approach.
However, to cope with modernization and
corporatization decentralization is inevitable.
Women Leaders in Higher Education
With the current trend of women literacy,
education and empowerment, the day is not too far
when we shall have women leaders almost equal in
numbers as men, who will exert an influence on their
organizations and society around them. Now itself we
have several corporate who have women as most
successful CEOs. Some scholars believe that women
adopt male standards of success to better fit into male-
dominated hierarchical structures and systems. But this
not true. Women have their own capabilities.
A study of several brain scans found that women
chief executive officers make decisions, gather and
dispense information, delegate tasks, structure their
organizations, and motivate their employees. They
place more emphasis on relationships, sharing, and
process, while male CEOs focus on completing tasks,
achieving goals, hoarding of information, and winning.
Researchers identified a separate development pathway
that result in personal and relational responsibility being
of highest value for females and legalistic justice for
individuals being highest for males. Therefore, as
described by several authors, while men are more
concerned with systems and rules, women are more
concerned with relations and atmosphere. This is
because women’s brains contain 10 times as much as
connective tissue (White Matter) as men’s where as
women contain six times more processing tissue (Grey
matter) enabling them to focus more narrowly on
decisions. Kiran Majumdar Shaw of Bicon says,
“leadership comes naturally to women.”
However, there are still biases stemming from
gender stereotypes. With gender ratio still skewed at
top level women has to strive hard to secure their due
positions. At present India has approximately 800
universities. Out of those 800 universities only a very
few universities are led by women Vice Chancellors
whereas women enrolment is in higher education is in
constant rise. This shows that colleges and universities
UNIVERSITY NEWS, 55(49) DECEMBER 04-10, 2017
are dominated by male leadership and administrative
procedures that exclude women still remains to be
adequately addressed so as to bridge the gender
disparity in Higher Education. Consequently, there is
struggle going on now how to bring equality of
opportunities to positions of power and influence. Once
the women leadership increases it is expected that they
can contribute to educate new generations to a broader
understanding of women’s roles and secondly to shape
women’s role in organizations that have a very
traditional and masculine cultural ethos. Clearly, it is
easier to promote change in the aspect of women
empowerment when they are in a position of authority.
Format for Training the Leaders of Universities
As commonly practiced phenomena in India, it
has been witnessed that the senior academic
functionaries of the universities or other Higher
Learning Institutions (HEI) are appointed in the
leadership positions such as Vice Chancellors, Pro Vice
Chancellors, Rectors, Directors, Deans, etc. without
any specialized training on university administration.
They are not familiarized with the day to day business
of administration, managing finance and other aspects
that require systematic training. This does not augur
well and essentially presents a paradoxical situation
given the fact that universities have become large and
complex organization shading their traditional character
as a result of massive expansion in terms of student
participation, emergence of new and micro disciplines,
necessity for harnessing knowledge for economic
development. e-technologies, increasing social
expectations and several other added functions.
Researches provide ample evidence that there is a high
degree of relationship between the quality of leadership
and performance or outcome of the organizations.
Most often, the senior academics are picked up
for leadership positions based upon their academic
credibility and achievements, without taking into
account the administrative and managerial skills. Lack
of expertise in administration and management creates
unnecessary liability for the organization rather than
supporting and advancing in accomplishment of its
stated missions and goals. Thus, it has been widely
accepted that the academic leaders in position and the
persons aspiring to occupy leadership position in future
need specific preparatory training to deal with the
diversified challenges of contemporary university
administration which calls for a combination of skills
constituting professional management blended with
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entrepreneurship and traditional academic functions.
Though several initiatives have been taken to design
leadership development programmes for academic
leaders of higher education, a sizeable portion of the
academia is of the view that this areas has received
scant attention. Keeping this in view, a format of
Training Programme is being presented which can help
institutions to organize such programmes for University
Leaders. First and foremost step in this regard is to lay
down objectives. Some of prominent objectives of the
programme can be:
• To make the Higher Education leaders and the
aspiring leaders familiarize with nuances of
university administration and help them to build
the capacity for taking informed decisions and
strategic planning.
• To expose Indian higher education administrators
to the best practices in higher education governance
and leadership and their adaptation in India context.
• To provide practical inputs on developing effective
Systemic and Transformational Leadership styles
for managing the university administration
effectively.
Core Components for Training Programme
1. Academic Leadership: Philosophical conceptual
framework
• Concept, Theories of leadership
• Nature, Characteristics and styles of leadership
• Leadership pattern in Higher Education
• Attributes of an academic leader
2. Academic Organisations
• Academic Institutions as Organizations
• Formal and Informal Structures
• Boundaries
• Autonomy, Accountability and Control
• Models and Best Practices
3. Appointment, Terms of Reference, Power &
responsibilities, and Service Conditions of Vice
Chancellors
4. Statutory Agencies and Issues related to Regulation
5. Managing University Administration
• Understanding the mission and objectives
• Contextualizing and articulating the local,
National and global needs.
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• Senate/Syndicate/ Executive Council,
Academic Council, other relevant authorities/
bodies,
• Acts, Statutes, Ordinances
• Strategic Planning and Decision making
• Faculty and Administrative Staff Recruitment
• Real Estate Management
• Decentralization of Administration
• Day to day Administration
6. Managing University Finances
• Accounts & Accounting Procedure
• Budgeting
• Fund Receipt & Expenditure planning
• Salary, Pensions, Provident Fund/
Superannuation Benefits
• Resource generation and tapping of internal
Resources
• Purchasing Procedure
• Investments
• Audit and related issues (Internal, Statutory/
Government Audit.
7. Managing Academic Activities: Teaching, Learning
and Research
• Academic Calendar
• Student Admission process and related issues
• Academic: Teaching, Learning, issues in
pedagogical practices
• Curriculum designing. Enrichment and Value
aditions
• Management of Research: Funding, quality
monitoring, patents & Publications.
• Quality & Benchmarking
• Organizing Faculty Development Programmes
(FDPs), Seminars, Conferences, Workshops,
etc.
• Skill Development Initiatives.
• Preparedness for world ranking of Universities
8. Evaluation/Examination
• Pre and Post examination activities/
preparations
• Timely Conduct of Examination
• Internal evaluation
UNIVERSITY NEWS, 55(49) DECEMBER 04-10, 2017
 • Continuous and Comprehensive Evaluation
(CCE)
• Choice Based Credit System (CBCS)
• Declaration of Results
• Examination Reform
9. Student Support and Progression
• Managing Student affairs, Elections to student
representative bodies/ Union
• Career & Guidance, Placements Mechanisms.
• Student Amenities: Hostel Facilities, library,
Health Issues, recreational facilities
• Student Discipline, dealing with campus unrest
(if any)
• Developing harmonious Student – Staff
relationship
• Co-curricular and Extra-curricular Activities
- Games and Sports, Literary & Cultural
activities
10. Managing Internationalization of Higher
Education
• Managing International Students
• Redesigning curriculum with International
Orientation
• Policies on Internationalization
• Technology Integration and e-Governance
• Private Participation in Higher Education
• Networking, Inter University Collaboration,
Resource Sharing
• Promoting Excellence/ Best Practices
• Access and Equity
• Gender related and women Empowerment
Issues
Conclusion
Leadership has been a topic of inquiry since time
immemorial, and still it continues to be a matter of great
interest and exploration to the scholars. Consequently,
a bulk of literature got piled up on the topic but still
there is a scope for some concrete concept on good
UNIVERSITY NEWS, 55(49) DECEMBER 04-10, 2017
leadership. Nevertheless, Good Leadership is
considered as panacea for all social and organizational
ills. It is the fundamental driver of national
competitiveness and success. A good leadership can
lead the nation towards leadership to lead the nations.
In this era of knowledge economy, a country can
become super power and world leader on the basis of
its acumen in its higher education. Evidently, it is the
higher education system of a country which can lead it
towards leadership. But this is possible only if the
country is endowed with efficient and conducive higher
education system. This in turn is possible only if higher
education system of the country is lead by efficient
leaders. The essence of the matter is— good leadership
in higher education system can produce leaders who
can lead the country towards sovereignty and prosperity
and becoming world leaders. Prof. S.K. Khanna former
Chairman, AICTE in one of his Convocation Addresses
published in the University News said, “Future
leadership of nations is not going to be measured
through defense capability, but through economic
superiority of the knowledge society. Those nations
who march on this path first, shall be the world leaders.”
Acknowledgements
The author gratefully acknowledges various sources on
internet, articles from university news, reports and documents
of government of India and the modules contributed by the
author and others published by IGNOU, while preparing the
article for the purpose of wider dissemination to the readers.
References
1. Burns, J.M. (1978). Leadership. New York: Harper and
Row.
2. GOI, Ministry of Education (1966). The Report of Kothari
Commission, 1964-66, New Delhi.
3. Lipham, H. (1974). The Principalship: Foundations and
Functions. New York: Harper and Row.
4. Middlehurst, Robin (2012). Leadership and Management
in Higher Education: A Research Perspective Maastricht
School of Management, Kingston University UK
5. University Grants Commission (1971). Committee on
Governance of Universities, 1969: Gajendra Gadkar
Committee Report, UGC, New Delhi ‰
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