ABSTRACT
This chapter illustrates the predominately service-leadership orientation of central academic development unit (ADUs) in a large metropolitan university in Sydney, Australia. The political and economic environment in which academic development operates is contested and tricky to navigate. ADUs and their directors often provide leadership, advocacy and resources for policy implementation, if not the actual development and writing of policy itself. Academic development work and the ADUs in which it is managed vary in shape, size and constitution to an extent that it is difficult to provide a common description. Most attempts to embed teaching criteria into policy, processes and practices require leadership, persistence and extensive engagement across institutional communities. It is important that directors and staff of ADUs have the skills and abilities to work with others as part of the critical stakeholder management required to develop or indeed respond to strategy and policy.
