ABSTRACT
This chapter outlines a cross-institutional approach to developing effective programme leadership at a UK teaching-focused higher education institution (HEI) by exploring the practical considerations involved in designing and delivering a Programme Leadership Development Programme.
This author argues that staff development for programme leaders (PLs) needs to respond to the complexity of the role, should be comprehensive in scope and sympathetic to the context in which the PL works. Although development initiatives focussed on key aspects of the PL role can be beneficial for PLs, the complexity of the PL role requires a collaborative and integrated approach to designing development for PLs that brings the whole institution together; only then can the wide-ranging expertise that the role requires be adequately addressed. This chapter outlines a cross-institutional Programme Leader Development Programme, the ethos and approach to the development of this programme and offers seven design principles for creating PL-centred workshops useful to other HEIs aiming to build a programme of development activity for programme leaders participant evaluations and PLs evidence the value and effectiveness of the ethos of the programme and the workshop design principles. Gannaway, an educational developer, reflects on the relevance and validity of this approach to an Australian research-intense HEI in the Practitioner Response.
