ABSTRACT
During my deanship at Warwick Business School some two decades ago I was introduced to Rajani's work as Director of the International Centre for Higher Education Management (ICHEM) at the University of Bath by two former colleagues at Warwick, namely, Mike Shattock (Registrar) and Andrew Pettigrew (a Dean and Professor of strategic management). They were both legendary figures in the growth of management and higher education in the UK. They pointed out the uniqueness of the well-designed ICHEM model for teaching and research about leadership in higher education. For me, it served as a benchmark and a guideline for my own research on leadership and futures in management education. Subsequently, I met Rajani soon after I became Dean of the Business School at Singapore Management University. The meeting took place at a conference on the future of management education at the Lorange Institute in Zurich (now CEIBS Europe) in which I gave a keynote address on research and scholarship in management education (see). Rajani was also giving a paper at the same conference and subsequently we have shared papers, meetings, conferences and ‘zooms’ about the future of higher education as well as management education. This has become a valuable, academic friendship and a long-standing collaborative partnership on issues of liberal management education, inclusive growth and leadership in higher education.
