SARUA programme to support development of HE leadership

In its quest to strengthen higher education leadership, the Southern African Regional Universities Association (SARUA) is hosting an eight week-long programme aimed at supporting deans of faculties, school directors and heads of centres in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) as they often step into these positions with little preparation for their challenging managerial roles.

SARUA wants to improve management and leadership significantly at institutional level and create a network of senior leaders across the SADC region.

The Dean and Senior Leadership Programme for SADC higher education institutions will support those occupying these positions in responding more effectively to the demands they face and to equip participants with the knowledge and understanding of the context within which they need to lead and manage, as well as to understand and steer their management and leadership styles more effectively for overall institutional success.

The leadership programme also seeks to develop a community of practice across the SADC region through its curriculum, which is delivered by means of scaffolded learning units.

Creating a platform for collaboration

Dr Birgit Schreiber, who is leading the programme at SARUA, said that 25 applicants had been selected from eight SADC countries as part of the first cohort, which included deans, executive deans, directors and one deputy vice-chancellor.

The curriculum encompasses topics including the higher education context globally and in Africa, regional and national development agendas, the Sustainable Development Goals and social justice as guiding principles.

It will also cover themes such as leadership maturity, areas in which leadership matter (functional areas), higher education financing, research and scholarship, community engagement as well as gender and equity.

Career advancement, self-care, work-life balance and SADC-Africa-global development agendas are also part of the sessions.

“This programme is premised on best practices for leadership development and we are using this cohort to help us shape an even more tailored set of programmes next year. In addition to imparting knowledge, insights and understanding, we are enabling competencies that support the functioning of this senior leader group,” she said.

“Perhaps, most importantly, we are creating a platform for collaboration and partnership, where the higher education institutions can form networks and communities across the SADC region. So, instead of emphasising the ‘elbow culture’ of competition, we are emboldening the senior leaders to collaborate,” she added.

SARUA’s vision

During the second session of the leadership programme, held virtually earlier in November, Professor Stephen Simukanga, the SARUA interim executive director, provided the organisation’s vision on leadership programmes going into 2025.

“At SARUA, we are a membership organisation and one of our activities going into next year is to provide leadership programmes so that we foster collaboration, innovation [and] excellence through peer-led programmes. Going forward, our vision for next year is also that we build and expand the leadership offering and that we will have senior leadership, women leadership and middle management leadership programmes.

“To advise us on the most relevant and impactful interventions for university leadership, SARUA is constituting an expert panel made up of the most astute and visionary leaders in higher education across the SADC region.

“'For vice-chancellors, we are hosting similar interventions twice a year in [a forum of past vice-chancellors] where we discuss leadership issues and share experiences as well as unique insights that [these vice-chancellors] can share with current vice-chancellors.

“The unique value added to the participants of the SARUA leadership programmes is that we work across countries and across the region. So we provide insights, lessons and experiences beyond national borders, programmes in which our participants can reach across borders into the SADC region and empower and connect the region,” he said.

Principle and value-based leadership

During a session on leadership maturity, Schreiber gave a broader overview of some of the challenges faced at senior management levels in higher education. These included student access and preparedness, student success rates, team dynamics, staff demands, employment equity, administration and finance, work-life balance, and so on.

Professor Hellicy Ng’ambi, a seasoned leadership expert and the vice-chancellor of Kabwe University in Zambia, gave a presentation on sustaining academic leadership maturity through the three by four (3×4) RARE leadership model.

The RARE principle-based value system advocates for responsible behaviour of leaders, employees and citizens, accountability to one another, relevant engagement and ethical behaviour – honesty, integrity, openness and trust.

She added that deans and senior managers at African universities face a myriad of challenges which include the lack of adequate funding, limited learner support facilities and technological changes that impeded their ability to efficiently carry out their leadership roles.

In addition, senior managers and deans must also address crucial issues around staff training and retention, students’ enrolment, the brain drain, the impact of mergers on staff morale, staff and student diversity, quality and relevance issues and political mandates, Ng’ambi said.

She also outlined that weak university-government and -industry partnerships increase challenges as research shows that, in many African countries, industry leaders are not involved in defining the research agenda, neither do they participate in the development of curricula to enable them to impact the curricula in ways that are relevant for institutional and national success.

In a study by Ng’ambi titled, ‘RARE leadership: An alternative leadership approach for Africa’, conducted in 2010, she explored the relationship between leadership and employees in higher education and results showed that mentoring, succession planning, ‘sense of community’ and clear and pervasive institutional support were among the critical determinants of commitment within the university workplace.

“We have so many resources in Africa that sustain, to a greater extent, the global village and yet we remain poor [and] underdeveloped, with high rates of unemployment.

“In search of solutions for leadership challenges, we acknowledge that all African (institutions) including higher-education institutions, need to rise and develop responsible, accountable, relevant and ethical leaders for sustainable development and futures ... leaders who are authentic and will embrace the rich and diverse heritage of our individual countries and continent at large.

“Africa requires leaders who are holistic and are able to lead with the head, the heart and hands. This principle and value-based leadership acknowledges that leadership is a combination of training, coaching, mentoring and experience, and that it is multifaceted and position-bound,” Ng’ambi stated.