The higher education leader of the past had a single driving concern. It was, primarily, how to expand in an era of growing student interest, increasing internationalisation, and increasing units of resource within a low interest environment. This isn’t to say leadership wasn’t hard, it always had been, but it required a specific set of leadership skills.

Today, leaders are navigating a far more complex landscape. They are increasingly asking:

  • How do we deliver our institutional mission within increasingly constrained resources?
  • How do we make confident decisions when the policy and international landscape continues to shift?
  • How do we prioritise effectively and make defensible choices in a resource-constrained environment?
  • How do we adapt sector-wide strategies to the realities of smaller and specialist institutions?
  • What does responsible leadership look like for our people, our students, our institutions, and society when competing priorities pull us in different directions?

This session explores leadership as both a cultural and structural phenomenon. As management scholar Henry Mintzberg described it, culture is "the way we do things around here", but those behaviours are shaped by how decisions are made, who is involved, and the information available to them.

Through discussion and practical examples, participants will explore how these dynamics play out in today's higher education environment and reflect on how they can strengthen decision-making and leadership within their own institutions.

About the speakers

  • James Coe is a Senior Partner at Counterculture, where he leads the organisation's higher education work, specialising in public policy, business, and strategy development. He was previously Head of Sustainability, Policy, and Civic Engagement at the University of Liverpool, and has worked across the sector on strategy and stakeholder engagement, including a role at NUS overseeing governance reform. He holds a Masters of Public Administration (Distinction) and has published a book on universities and their communities.
  • Fiona Walsh McDonnell has extensive experience delivering programmes and consultancy projects with universities, students, and communities, with particular expertise in place-based activities, student leadership, and inclusive programme design. Her background spans the charity and education sectors, including volunteer management and school-based programmes, and she created Student Hubs' legacy resources for the higher education sector. Fiona is a Foundation Chartered Manager (fCMgr) with further qualifications in leadership and education and training.

As places are limited, we encourage you to register early. The registration form will close automatically once capacity has been reached.

Available to GuildHE members only. To know more about GuildHE membership, please email [email protected]