It is unusual to find a football manager who has yet to kick a ball professionally or an orchestra conductor who has never played a note.

But a study of those overseeing the quality of teaching at UK universities has found that they seldom have an academic background in education ¨C with many pro vice-chancellors for education even viewing this kind of expertise as unhelpful to their jobs.

According to the paper, titled ¡°¡±, published in the Journal of Higher Education Policy and Management,?less than one in five pro vice-chancellors for education lay claim to any expertise in education on their public profiles.

In addition, very few have claimed the UK¡¯s top recognition for teaching ¨C a National Teaching Fellowship, which, until recently, have been awarded by the Higher Education Academy. None of the 24 pro vice-chancellors for education in the Russell Group of research-intensive universities held one, while just three out of 34 in the same role at other post-92 universities surveyed held the award, says the paper by Anna Mountford-Zimdars, an associate professor at the University of Exeter¡¯s Graduate School of Education, and Gustave Kenedi, who is now a researcher at the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development.

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¡°If you did the same study for pro vice-chancellors for research, you would find almost everyone would have [been] successful in attracting research grants or running large research centres, but the same isn¡¯t true for education PVCs,¡± Dr Mountford-Zimdars told Times Higher Education. ¡°What we¡¯re seeing is people moving their way up to the head of their departments and the PVC education role is simply the next step on the career ladder.¡±

That relative lack of expertise in education among pro vice-chancellors may suggest that universities are not attaching the same esteem to teaching as research, said Dr Mountford-Zimdars.

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¡°It might also reflect the fact that educationalists focus on primary or secondary education and do not see much of a career path in university education,¡± she added.

The study also included interviews with eight UK pro vice-chancellors for education and 16 heads of university education departments on why so few?pro vice-chancellors?had an education background, concluding that ¡°generic leadership skills, usually acquired as heads of departments, prepare incumbents for their role¡±.

For example, one?pro vice-chancellor at a post-92 university explained that education was just part of a wider brief that included ¡°widening participation, admissions, teaching, learning¡­a big review of the exam process¡­a big review of student workload, linked to¡­health and well-being...and internationalisation¡±.

As such, only two of the 24 interviewees thought that actual expertise in education would enhance performance in the role, while ¡°there was agreement among PVCs [of] education that formal [leadership] training had limited uses¡±.

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One director of learning at a Russell Group university said that the ¡°complicated¡± pro vice-chancellor role was more about ¡°politics and being tough, actually, and not everybody can do that¡±, adding that ¡°a lot of [education experts] wouldn¡¯t make good managers¡±.

jack.grove@timeshighereducation.com