Qualities of University Leaders in the 21st Century

1
Qualities of University Leaders in the 21st
Century

• Prof. Georg Winckler
• President, European University Association
• Rector, University Vienna, Austria
• National University of Ireland, 2 December 2008

2

• Universities in the 21st century
• Governance and leadership
• Qualities of Leaders of Universities

3
Universities in the 21st century(Modernisation
Agenda 2006)

• broaden access on a more equitable basis
• reach out to more research excellence
• break down the barriers surrounding European
  universities
• provide the appropriate skills and competences
  for the labour market
• create genuine autonomy and accountability for
  universities
• reduce the funding gap so that 2 of GDP will be
  spent on HE by 2015 besides 3 of GDP spent on
  RD and make funding more effective

4
Universities at the beginning of the 21st
century(Ralf Dahrendorf 2000) I

• (1) Little sense to search for an idea of the
  university, universities are a ragbag of
  institutions with no clearly defined boundaries
  and no substantive core, there
• are many institutions turning
  information
• into knowledge and providing (higher)
  education.
• (farewell to Wilhelm v. Humboldt, Cardinal
  Newman, Karl Jaspers)

5
Universities at the beginning of the 21st century
(Rald Dahrendorf 2000) II

• Conditions under which universities will bloom
  
• - autonomy, with funding from a variety of
• sources
• - vibrant and innovative systems
• (exploring new avenues of knowledge, new
• theories and applications, new methods of
  
• teaching, overcoming stagnation)
• - openness for the world outside, outreach
• - important issues of public concern are
  debated

6
Governance and leadership

• Faculty tends to maintain shared governance
• Trustees stress their role of ultimate
  responsibility and want business standards
• University leaders want flexibility, new
  institutional strategies
• Students as silent stakeholders
• What are the optimal governance structures for
  the future?
• Dependent on the mission and profile!

7
Qualities of Leaders (Shaw 1999)

• interpersonal competence
• (knowing the players, dealing with conflict)
• group knowledge (understanding groups and their
  dynamics)
• transforming organizations
• (implementing values, mission and vision)
• dealing with the public
• (speaking out loud, fund-raising)