‘If there is a job description I don’t think I’ve read one’: a case study of programme leadership in a UK pre-1992 university

Rafael Mitchell

doi:10.1080/0309877x.2014.895302

Abstract

This paper reports on an exploratory study of the role of programme leaders (PLs) in a pre-1992 university, based on interviews with PLs (7) and a survey of taught Masters students (54) in a single school. The study elicits PLs’ activities, most of which might be categorised as managerial and administrative, with leadership required intermittently; the preeminent role involves managing programme quality. The study finds that institutional guidelines overlook important aspects of PLs’ work (such as organising enrichment activities and student advocacy) which affect the quality of provision, and the findings challenge the notion that PLs are engaged in a ‘disesteemed’ service.

Highlights

Programme leaders (PLs) have been identified as playing a key role in higher education institutes (HEIs), ensuring the relevance (Howson, 2012) and quality of learning (Vilkinas and Ladyshewsky, 2011), and providing academic leadership for the programme delivery team (Millburn, 2010)
Howson (2012) reports that in Edinburgh Napier University, PLs spend up to 40% of their time on ‘leadership activities’, while 20-50% is spent on administration; a median figure would be helpful here, and there is every reason to challenge the meaningfulness of such figures
An element missing from prior work in this area was the students’ voice; I felt it was important to explore their perspectives on the role as a counterpoint to PLs’ own accounts

Summary

Introduction

Programme leaders (PLs) have been identified as playing a key role in higher education institutes (HEIs), ensuring the relevance (Howson, 2012) and quality of learning (Vilkinas and Ladyshewsky, 2011), and providing academic leadership for the programme delivery team (Millburn, 2010). Evans (2008) observes that a broad consensus of interpretations of professionalism regard it as an “externally imposed, articulated perception of what lies within the parameters of a profession’s collective remit and responsibilities” (2008: 23) This is consistent with a functionalist view of roles, in contrast with a more dynamic, socially-defined nature of a role, and the impact of an individual practitioner’s perceptions, practices or agency. In her conceptual study of professionalism, Evans’ (2008) identifies the potentially stark difference between what is ‘officially set down’ as the roles and responsibilities of a profession, and what is enacted

Methods

Findings

Discussion

Conclusion