What are the ideal traits of a university leader? Our survey data suggests exceptional time management and an ability to manage continual change and complex challenges are probably a good place to start.
Despite the upheaval of the past few years, the challenges facing higher education leaders have remained remarkably consistent between 2019 and 2022. The top three challenges are unchanged: the complexity of issues facing universities is the top challenge for higher education leaders (50% in 2022). Leaders also face too many demands on their time (37%), and dealing with continual change and uncertainty (34%).
Internal issues such as leading teams (6% in 2022), securing institutional support (3%), and managing broad and diverse organisations (2%) rank lower, suggesting that universities were able to adapt well to rapidly shifting circumstances – at least from the perspective of senior leaders.
Data is drawn from our recent report: The 2022 NCEE leadership survey: How the pandemic will shape university leaders and their institutions (PDF, 2.9mb). There’s a wealth of data on how leaders view opportunities over the next few years, telling a story of resilience and upheaval in the sector. 2019 data is from our previous report (PDF, 1.4mb), allowing us to track the views of leaders over time.