Introduction

This chapter includes two original papers which consider separate, but equally important, influences. In the first paper Brian Fidler outlines the decision-making and leadership processes in higher education. He suggests that the style of leadership which is found in institutions of higher education is very sound, reflecting the professional nature of the staff of such institutions while being organizationally suitable for the current structure of the system. The second paper by Ivor Goodson is, in contrast, an examination of the ways in which the system of higher education, and its personnel, exert a 'pull' on the schools sector by effectively deciding upon the respectability and credibility of the 'subjects' of the school curriculum. It is also a reminder that there are less overt influences at work within the educational system which are able to exert considerable unofficial pressure to change, or maintain, the current situation.