Maggie Gonçalves
Senior Project Officer, ACU
Universities are navigating an increasingly complex landscape, and institutions are being asked not simply to respond to change, but to lead through it. What does this mean for the people leading our universities, both today and in the future, and are we doing enough to prepare the next generation of higher education leaders?
To explore these questions, the Association of Commonwealth Universities (ACU) and the Institute of Leadership (IoL) have launched a new strategic partnership to strengthen leadership across higher education.
As part of the early development of this work, the ACU recently held three consultation sessions - a roundtable that brought together 25 vice-chancellors and ACU Council members and two sessions with ACU Ambassadors and members of the ACU's HR in HE Community and Supporting Research Community.
Senior leaders, professional service colleagues and researchers from across the Commonwealth discussed the challenges universities face, and the support needed to address them.
The conversations were rich, wide-ranging, and clear themes have emerged:
Building a stronger leadership pipeline
One of the strongest messages was the need for a more deliberate approach to identifying and developing future leaders.
Universities have traditionally drawn their senior leaders from academic career pathways. While academic credibility and expertise remain valuable, participants highlighted that academic excellence alone does not prepare someone for the complexity of institutional leadership.
Participants highlighted the need to identify and develop leadership potential earlier, across academic, professional, technical and administrative roles. Clearer development pathways and stronger succession planning are essential. This path must also be inclusive and help diverse leaders survive, exercise authority and succeed once appointed.
Developing a broader set of leadership capabilities
Technical knowledge alone will not be enough. Leaders will increasingly need to combine strategic thinking and sound judgement with emotional intelligence, communication, influence and stakeholder engagement, particularly as they lead institutions through increasing complexity and uncertainty.
The emphasis is shifting from simply managing change to leading transformation.
Leading in a financially challenging environment
Financial sustainability was another significant concern. Leaders are increasingly having to make difficult choices about priorities, resources, and institutional strategy.
Participants highlighted the importance of strengthening commercial awareness, financial literacy, and resource management, ensuring leaders have the confidence and capability to make informed decisions while protecting institutional mission and sustainability.
Navigating governance and external relationships
The boundaries of the university have expanded well beyond the campus, and the role of leaders has expanded accordingly. Leaders increasingly work within complex networks of governments, regulators, governing bodies, partners, communities, and other stakeholders.
Participants highlighted the importance of political awareness, diplomacy, judgement and governance expertise. Leaders need to understand different perspectives and external pressures while also safeguarding institutional values, autonomy and independence.
Leading transformation, not simply managing change
Change is no longer an occasional event for universities; it has become a constant feature of the operating environment.
Leaders need to be able to navigate ambiguity and complexity, lead organisational transformation and make complex decisions while maintaining the confidence and engagement of their communities. Participants noted that universities can also benefit from learning from leadership practices and knowledge from outside the higher education sector.
AI and the future workforce
AI featured prominently in the conversations, but participants were thinking beyond technology alone.
Universities are navigating changing workforce expectations, demographic shifts, sustainability pressures and an increasingly uncertain global environment. AI adds another dimension, potentially reshaping roles, skills, ways of working, and approaches to teaching, learning and research.
Future leaders will need the foresight and adaptability to anticipate different possibilities, respond quickly and lead confidently when the answers are not yet clear.
Harnessing the strength of the Commonwealth
A final theme was the unique opportunity presented by the Commonwealth itself.
Leadership development should be built on reciprocal learning, not one-way knowledge transfer. Institutions across different regions of the Commonwealth bring distinct experiences, perspectives and approaches to leadership.
The diversity of higher education in the Commonwealth could therefore be one of the programme’s greatest strengths, creating a space where leaders learn with, and from, one another.
So, what should leadership development look like?
These conversations reinforced something important; future HE leaders may require a different combination of skills.
Leadership development should start earlier, reach across academic, professional, technical and administrative career pathways, and continue well beyond appointment. It should combine practical leadership capabilities with opportunities to learn through experience, challenge and relationships. It should help leaders to strengthen their strategic judgement, financial and commercial awareness, political and governance skills, emotional intelligence, and ability to lead transformation through uncertainty, while retaining the trust of the communities they lead.
Crucially, development must be inclusive, supporting diverse leaders not only to reach senior positions but to exercise authority, navigate institutional cultures and thrive once there.
Let’s continue this conversation…
The insights shared through these consultations are helping the ACU and the IoL shape the next stage of our work and the development of a leadership programme that is grounded in the realities of higher education.