Abstract
The Australian Higher Education sector is one of the most technically sophisticated and globalised of all the Australian industries. In 2018 it contributed $37.9 billion to the national economy, of which $30.3 billion was generated by Australian universities. In 2018 the sector employed 121,718 people (total FT and fractional FT staff) including 52,669 academic and 69,049 non-academic staff who are collectively responsible for educating more than 1,562,520 of Australia’s most promising students. Yet, evidence suggests that three decades after ‘strategic’ planning was implemented in Australian universities as part of the wide scale structural reforms led in 1988 by the Hon. John Dawkins, then Commonwealth Minister for Employment Education and Training, several leadership tensions are often expressed between the Commonwealth Government and the Australian university sector, as well as between the executive and academic staff. A collection of interviews with former Vice-Chancellors and members of the professoriate (Howes, 2020) brings to the discussion insights from a representative sample of academic leaders who led, or witnessed, the implementation of the ‘Dawkins Reforms’ in the Australian higher education sector and discuss the impact the introduction of strategic leadership and the implementation of strategic planning has had on Australian universities. University executives have a responsibility to act in the best interests of the university. They also have a responsibility to act in the best interests of all their stakeholders, past, present, and future. These two primary leadership responsibilities should not be in conflict.
Presenters
Tess HowesAcademic, Management, Macquarie University Business School, New South Wales, Australia
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
The Value of Culture and the Demand of Change
KEYWORDS
Cultural Change, Strategy as a Discourse, Australian Vice-Chancellors, Strategic Leadership
