Source: Kobal

Do v-cs mean business? Executive recruiting firm claims that the required skill set to lead a university has broadened

A firm of headhunters has questioned whether academics ¡°are the right leaders of tomorrow¡± for universities, suggesting higher education leaders may need skills ¡°most effectively honed in the business world¡±.

In a paper titled ¡°21st century academic leadership: from the lecture hall or the boardroom?¡±, executive recruiter Odgers Berndtson asks whether a ¡°new kind of leadership¡± is needed to respond to trends such as the globalisation of higher education, government funding cuts and the growth of online learning.

¡°Are the academics who have traditionally led universities the right leaders of tomorrow? Hasn¡¯t the required skillset broadened?¡± the paper, which the firm plans to publish online, asks.

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It continues that although ¡°there¡¯s no reason academics can¡¯t be just as entrepreneurial¡­as those running FTSE 100 companies¡±, university leaders ¡°increasingly need a wider range of skills that are often most effectively (albeit not exclusively) honed in the business world¡±.

It adds: ¡°Many of the challenges facing universities are the same as those facing the commercial world ¨C greater competition for talent and customers, intensified by operating in a global marketplace with fast-moving technology ¨C so it makes sense that leadership forged in business should translate into a university context.¡±

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In the US, the proportion of university presidents coming directly from a post outside higher education rose from 17 to 23 per cent between 2007 and 2012, the paper says. In the UK, 40 per cent of university leaders have ¡°spent significant time¡± outside academia, it adds.

Odgers Berndtson concludes: ¡°The universities of the future might be led by a world-class academic, a high-flying business executive, or a combination of the two. There is no single right answer ¨C but those who stand still now risk finding themselves moving backwards before long.¡±

Stephen Crookbain, partner and head of the education practice at Odgers Berndtson, said there was ¡°most certainly a connection between what we¡¯ve found through this research and the rise in levels of remuneration [for university leaders]¡±.

But Amanda Goodall, author of Socrates in the Boardroom: Why Research Universities should be Led by Top Scholars, warned that universities would ¡°absolutely go down the toilet¡± if they were led by business figures.

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Dr Goodall, a senior lecturer in management at the Cass Business School, highlighted the contribution of Californian universities Stanford and Berkeley to technological development in Silicon Valley. These universities are ¡°led by absolutely outstanding scholars who could hire other outstanding scholars who could create these spillover effects [for the US economy]¡±, she said.

There was ¡°no way in hell Stanford University would ever have a businessman run it¡±, she added.

Dr Goodall also pointed out that ¡°a lot of data and evidence¡± on researcher and university performance had gone into her argument that leading academics make the best leaders. To be a good leader ¡°you have to understand the psychology behind your core workers, you have to know what motivates them¡±, whereas business leaders moving to universities tended to introduce ¡°managerial systems¡± to try to ¡°control¡± academics whose work they did not understand, she said.

john.morgan@tsleducation.com