ABSTRACT
The leadership initiative to connect and support programme leaders (PLs) at a number of Scottish higher education institutions is particularly interesting because of the engagement with and potential impact of strategic educational leadership. An educational leader, at the University of British Columbia, a research-intensive university in Vancouver, Canada, is a faculty member whose employment involves high stakes decisions regarding curricular and pedagogical initiatives at a departmental, faculty, or institutional level. The needs of both PLs and educational leaders support the increased importance of strategically supported, institution-level educational/academic leadership, especially as these leaders are required to make significant, research-informed and evidence-based decisions around pedagogical, curricular and policy initiatives and/or changes. A regional approach to understand and support programme leadership broadens the scope of recognition of the importance of this work and creates a landscape of practice outside of the financial and political whims of any institution.
