This course has been designed to introduce a variety of perspectives on strategic leadership and performance improvement in the higher education (HE) institutions (universities, colleges and research institutes) particularly in the Post Covid-19 global pandemic.

In today’s world, HE institutions must confront new realities rapidly manifesting themselves in a diversely complex and fast-changing world. Business as usual will not suffice. HE institutions need to be expansively re-focused in order to become more sensitive and responsive to its mission of developing graduates who, in addition to conventional graduate training, are also able to fight the intellectual battle for self-confidence and self-assertion as equal players in the global and intensely competitive knowledge economy. There will be great focus in the course on issues to do with teaching excellenceincluding teaching quality, learning environment, staff continuous professional development and other important issues relating to student support and career development.

The course aims to enable leaders and decision makers to introduce fit-for-purpose leadership styles and approaches to their HE institutions. The course will also help HE leaders to transform their teaching and research towards achieving the United Nations Agenda 2030 and its 17 Sustainable Development Goals. In doing so, participants will learn how to ensure all academic programmes are embedded and aligned (designed/revalidated) with the 17 SDGs. The aim is to ensure future graduates are fully aware of the subject of sustainability and accordingly, able to engage on a global scale to address the world future global challenges and find ways for sustainable solutions.

At the end of the course participants should be able to acquire a comprehensive knowledge and practical experience about leadership styles and approaches in alignment with the local needs and capabilities.

Learning Outcomes:

Today, more than ever before in human history, the wealth or poverty of nations depends on the quality of HE. Revolutionary breakthroughs in the knowledge economy are leading to remarkable changes in the way forward-looking nations capacitate their graduates. In this era of global skills and knowledge race, all universities cannot fail to realise, accept and accomplish its natural and ascribed roles as a strategic agent for national development.

Whilst there has been a tremendous growth in size, the expansion of HE in almost all parts of the world, this expansion has caused average quality of education in many countries to decline as resources are stretched increasingly thin. Essentially, the expansion has been less differentiated and, therefore, ill-planned to confront emergent development needs. Rather, what is evident is a stupendous replication of traditional disciplinary-based techniques of knowledge production. These have, nevertheless, increased the richness of knowledge about the universe we live in but without apparently translating or transforming the catchment societal environments in terms of measurable productive capacities. There are also grave concerns that HE in many developing countries is becoming increasingly obsolete which, in part, is why development programmes are stultified even from the outset. There are also serious issues regarding the under-performance in research – state of academic research is less-than-satisfactory in almost all universities in the developing countries. Therefore, developing countries HE institutions must confront the ‘new realities’ evident in the environments in which they operate. Many scholars and policy makers have called for a transformative innovation agenda which embraces radical change for new synthesis and approaches for transforming HE in the developing countries.

Youth across the world particularly in Africa and the Arab regions are growing fast and governments in the region expect their HE institutions to make a leading contribution by producing graduates ready to grasp the various opportunities generated in the digital economy. It is therefore important that all HE institutions and societies to consider the youth in all their curriculum design, programs development as well as fulfilling their role as major agents in the realisation of the various future strategic visions in most countries in the region. According to recent reports by the World Bank, with a large youth representation and youth unemployment ratio, the Arab region as an example faces a potential crisis and the education sector should be reformed to include specific qualifications and specialisations in the digital economy. The private sector can play a larger role in helping governments and academia focus investments on high-priority and high demand skills, thus young students are ready for employment the moment they graduate.

The key objectives of the course are:

Program Structure:

1. The course will provide participants within the public and private sectors with the best scientific and management solutions to implement effectively in their organisations.
2. There will be an activity or set of activities for each session. These will be designed to help you engage with the introduction to the theories explored within the course.
3. Your Facilitator will be on hand to guide you through the programme and will expect you to bring personal experience and reflection on the topics covered.
4. Group work will be required for participants to engage in the course. Such activity allows participants to embed the new knowledge within their experience through active discussion and challenge.

Programme 

• General introduction to leadership
• Strategic leadership and planning
• Difference between leadership and management
• Understanding the problem in HE
• Leadership skills and tactics in HE
• Effective leadership in HE
• Essentials of teaching excellence
• Aspects of the transforming learning and teaching
• Role of HE in knowledge-based economy
• Role of HE in achieving the UN Agenda 2030 and its 17 SDGs
• Discussion and reflection – next steps