TITLE:
Leadership Framework for Internationalisation of Higher Education
AUTHORS:
Noel Kufaine
KEYWORDS:
Higher Education, Internationalisation, Leadership, Management, University
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Leadership,
Vol.13 No.3,
September
2,
2024
ABSTRACT: The paper is a product of an analysis of two higher education leadership frameworks by Martin Trow and Bolman and Deal, and internationalisation of higher education literature. The analysis was conducted to establish the flexible leadership framework for the complex and everchanging higher-education and multifaced and diversified internationalisation environment. The study used an interpretive and descriptive approach. Qualitative data was generated through document analysis. Thematic analysis and qualitative analysis were deployed to identify emerging and dominating themes as a focus for interpretation. The spike on the discourse on internationalization of higher education has stimulated higher education institutions to actively straddle between responding to national needs and international demands with all its significance and ramifications. The university institutions and systems are now large and complex organisations requiring skilled management, innovative leadership, and effective frameworks for decision-making. The developed five-dimensional higher education leadership framework is emerged from the reflections on Bolman and Deal and Trow higher education frameworks and insights into leadership activities relating to the internationalisation of higher education. The framework addresses clear and specific activities, and has broader coverage, and recognises the academic, structural, and managerial imperatives. The leadership framework represents a continuous sequence in the organisation’s operation. All the leadership dimensions are at the same level of importance, and the sequence of operation has no direction because the sequence is based on appropriate tasks rather than direction. The leadership framework introduces leaders to flexibility on appropriate leadership approaches in a complex higher-education and diversified internationalisation environment.