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Member Project 23-24: Growing the HE workforce of the future

This project explores how we grow the HE workforce of the future and considers the needs of the higher education system: what institutions, leadership, teams, and individuals need to thrive in the face of the constantly fluctuating landscape that the sector currently finds itself in.

The Advance HE 2023 leadership survey report highlighted some clear synergies and some startling divergences between the perspectives of ‘me as a leader’ and ‘my experience of being led’. This theme seeks to understand the systemic issues exposed by the survey and explores the resources, extent and scope for our institutional leadership and systems to develop the staff, well-being, and cultures required to address the challenges and withstand the pressures of 21st-century higher education.

These 'wicked’ problems can only be addressed through collaboration and an openness to explore. The three outputs for this theme seek to offer some new perspectives and evidence-based approaches that will enable novel thinking to support our institutions, leaders and communities to address these issues.

This project is relevant to: All members

Job functions: Academics, Lecturers, Tutors, Coaches, Programme Leaders, Learning Designers and Technologists, Middle Management and Senior Leaders.

Explore the individual projects

Projects:

Decoding Pastoral Support

This work package delves into the systemic considerations of 'support' within HE environments. It considers how ‘support’ is accounted for, what it looks like and the impacts and value that it brings.

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Leadership careers in HE Professional Services

This member benefit seeks to to prompt active thinking about this important part of the HE sector and explore what (if anything) is needed by institutions and individuals to enable progression and accelerate leadership careers. The output and that of the Academic Leadership project in 2022-23 will inform future work about what the sector wants and needs in this area.

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Doing Leadership Differently in HE

How are we doing leadership in our institutes? Specifically, how is our leadership reinforcing or reshaping the ‘Western managerial models’ that dominate higher education, given their decreasing relevance to the complex systems and environments in which we operate? 

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Thought Leadership Piece

Explore the current data on support and supporting. How do we quantify, value and measure this quality and it's impact on our institutions?
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Focus Groups

A series of focus groups were organised to gain an understanding of lived experiences of support and support in the sector.

Report

This report outlines the current situation, focused on the lived experience of providing support. In this context, we identify 3 recommendations (emphasising the value of care) to invite progress in accounting for the impact of providing support and care in HE organisations.
Read the report

Lead

Sarah Hubbard

Senior Consultant in Leadership, Organisational Development and Research
,
Advance HE
Sarah Hubbard
Sarah Hubbard is a Senior Consultant in the Leadership, Organisational Development and Research team. In collaboration, Sarah’s work is focused on designing for and enabling participation and alignment, well-being and inclusion, leading to improved colleague engagement and performance, enhanced decision making and transformation.
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Blog and Provocation

This conversation starter seeks to evidence the need for further development of career pathways in professional services.
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Focus Groups

A series of focus groups to explore the provocation and provide feedback and insights.

Focus Group 1: The evolving size and shape of professional services in HE
This focus group took place on 17 May 2024.

Focus Group 2: What makes Professional Services Leadership distinctive?
This focus group took place on 20 May 2024

Focus Group 3: How can we enhance leadership careers beyond boundaries?
This focus group took place on 21 May 2024

Response from the Sector

We recognised that, as we put the spotlight on professional services, the provocation would inevitably represent a limited lens on the issues at play in the sector currently. We therefore sought to establish a dialogue with members to enrich and enhance the conversation and to inform further work. We held three focus groups delivered in May 2024 with 30 institutions.
Participants of the workshops discussed three key themes
-The evolving size and shape of professional services in HE and - Is the current shape and size delivering optimal results for staff and students?
-Leadership development priorities opportunity and necessity – can hybrid roles work and can they support institutional sustainability.
-Leadership Careers for Professional Services in HE - Where next?
The groups explored what resonated with them and diverged from their experience, what was missing in the provocation and the implications for both leadership development and cultural implications.
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Lead

Fiona Lennoxsmith

Lead Consultant, Leadership, Organisational Development and Research
,
Advance HE
Fiona Lennoxsmith
Fiona Lennoxsmith is Lead Consultant, Leadership, Organisational Development and Research at Advance HE, where she leads a team of senior consultants to design and facilitate innovative leadership interventions, programmes and thought leadership for the Higher Education sector.

Kim Ansell

Senior Consultant Governance and Leadership
,
Advance HE
Kim Ansell
Kim has worked across higher and professional education providing support to groups at all levels including senior leadership teams and Boards, to facilitate change, strategic thinking, planning and performance improvement.

Dr Geraldine Harrison

Consultant
Dr Geraldine Harrison
 A longstanding Associate of Advance HE. She holds a PhD from Edinburgh University and an MBA from the Open University.  Geraldine is also an OD professional with experience in the higher education sector and the private sector.
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A Series of ‘In-Conversation’ dialogues

This series of dialogues with individuals inside and external to the HE sector aims to explore and unpack what it might mean to do leadership differently through different knowledge lenses and lived experiences.

Doing Leadership Differently series of short reflective thought-pieces

Supporting and drawing on the literature and dialogues, we will be writing a series of short reflections about some of the main provocations and ideas to emerge about how we might do leadership differently within HE, why this is necessary in the current context and what this might mean for changing the approach to leadership development.

Collaborative Conversations

A collaborative conversation at the Sustainability in Higher Education conference in June 2024 to present some of the ideas emerging and as a way provoking further dialogue in UK HE institutions and growing the conversation about doing leadership differently.

Lead

Jo Chaffer

Key Global Associate
,
Advance HE
Jo Chaffer
With in-depth Higher Education expertise, Jo works with HEIs, HE agencies and Ministries internationally supporting and enabling leadership development, strategic approaches to leadership and governance with a particular interest in feminized leadership.
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Discover more from Advance HE

The Knowledge Hub, our eNewsletters and Advance HE Connect are great ways to keep up-to-date on the work of Advance HE.

Knowledge Hub

The Advance HE Knowledge Hub brings together thousands of higher education resources covering a wide range of topics and themes all into one place. Search by keyword or use the search filters on theme, sub theme and content type to find resources relevant to you.

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An Advance HE member benefit

Member Projects are part of Advance HE's member benefits for the 2023-24 membership year. Click below to see the full range of benefits available.

See this year's projects