Building program leadership capacity in higher education is a priority for several reasons.
- Program leaders are pivotal to shaping institutional change management processes relating to enhancement of learning, teaching and curriculum quality (Scott, Coates & Anderson, 2008).
- In Australian universities, there is an imperative to demonstrate that students are achieving program-level outcomes and standards. Australia’s Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency (TEQSA) places emphasis on the need for a standards-based quality assurance framework and the importance of enhancing the overall quality of the Australian higher education system. This has significant implications for those responsible for designing and leading programs of study in universities.
- Program Leaders are responsible for overseeing the design of learning objectives, activities and assessment tasks across the program that will, in turn, result in high quality student experiences and program-level outcomes.
- Program Leaders require knowledge and skills in developing and measuring standards at the program level - see the ALTC Learning and Teaching Academic Standards project.
ALTC Academic Standards Final Report (PDF 1.27mb) - When designing and reviewing programs, Program Leaders need to be well acquainted with the Australian Qualifications Framework (AQF) and the requirements and standards associated with each level of this Framework.
- Program Leaders need skills to be able to manage the quality assurance and quality enhancement aspects of their programs. This includes:
- personal capabilities in such areas as self-regulation, decisiveness and capacity to tolerate ambiguity
- interpersonal capabilities to assist in managing staff teams who coordinate the units within the program, as well as other key stakeholders within and beyond the university (e.g., in industry and the community)
- knowledge of curriculum design, higher education quality frameworks
- Program Leaders are responsible for overseeing the design of learning objectives, activities and assessment tasks across the program that will, in turn, result in high quality student experiences and program-level outcomes.