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This article is concerned with the extent to which the leadership of higher education is a universally positive or contingent experience. It draws on comparative data from semi-structured interviews with those in senior leadership positions in public universities in Australia, Ireland and Portugal, countries which are differently located on the collegial/managerial continuum. It looks at their perceptions of the advantages/disadvantages of these positions. Universal trends emerge, arising from difficulties created by the shortage of resources consequent on neo-liberalist pressures; from the non-viability of a managerialist discourse as a source of meaning; from the positive character of the university as a knowledge-generating organisation; and from the gendered satisfactions derived by men and women from occupying these senior leadership positions. Contingent trends include the tension between academic and managerial roles, which is strongest in the Portuguese collegial structures; while the negative impact on personal well-being is most apparent among the Australian respondents in the most managerialist structure. The paper concludes that assumptions that senior leadership positions are universally positive is not supported. It suggests that the attractiveness of these positions--contested in a collegial structure--may be further reduced in increasingly managerialist contexts, with the challenge of diversity, so important to innovation and economic growth, being particularly acute.

The objective of this study was to assess the viability and acceptability of an innovative Virtual Wound Care Command Centre where patients in the community, and their treating clinicians, have access to an expert wound specialist service that comprises a digital wound application (app) for wound analysis, decision-making, remote consultation, and monitoring. Fifty-one patients with chronic (42.6%) wounds were healed, with a median time to healing of 66 (95% CI: 56-88) days. All patients reported high satisfaction with their wound care, 86.4% of patients recommended the Virtual Wound Care Command Centre with 84.1% of patients reporting the app as easy to use. The data revealed that the Virtual Wound Care Command Centre was a viable and acceptable patient-centred expert wound consultation service for chronic wound patients in the community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyses career trajectories into university management in Australia, South Africa and the United Kingdom (UK), skills required to operate effectively and the power of vice-chancellors (VCs) and their impact on the gendered shaping of university leadership. It is based on qualitative research with 56 male and female senior managers. The research found that the typical career path was modelled on male academic careers. Not surprisingly, in South Africa and the UK the perception of the top university leader was of a man but in Australia, where more women have been VCs, there was no such assumption. Characteristics valued in university leaders in Australia and South Africa were "soft" leadership traits, but in the UK "hard" aggressive and competitive leadership prevailed. VCs are enormously powerful and can shape the gender balance in management teams and thereby potentially broadening leadership styles beyond the predominant transactional model to include transformational leadership.

This article explores the role of senior managers in consolidating and interpreting new managerialism in higher education in Australia, South Africa and Portugal, and perceptions of potential effects on gender. The impact of managerialism on decision-making in Australia was increased centralisation with the Vice Chancellor operating as a Chief Executive Officer; in South Africa tension existed between collegial and managerial models evident in power struggles between Vice Chancellors and faculties, plus overt risk and strong political considerations; while in Portugal decision making remained collegial with Rectors seeing themselves as "primus inter pares" (first among equals). The major finding was that while women as senior managers had an increased capacity to impact on decision-making in managerial universities, mainly related to "soft" management skills, these were not valued in a competitive management culture strongly focused on research output. Thus managerialism presents a great challenge for women in senior management in higher education. (Contains 3 tables.)

This paper analyses differences in perceptions of gender and leadership though qualitative interviews with 45 senior managers in Australia and Turkey. The literature suggests that masculine models of leadership are changing with both women and many men preferring transformational leadership styles. The research found that there were different perceptions about gender and leadership in Australian and Turkish universities, reflecting different economic and social contexts. Turkish respondents mostly did not engage in discussion on the topic and did not consider women experienced discrimination as managers. In contrast, Australian respondents acknowledged discrimination and supported interventions by Vice-Chancellors (VCs) to increase women in university management. Perceptions of leadership in Turkish universities were aligned with a predominantly masculine/transactional model, and in Australia had moved from heroic masculinity to more inclusive leadership styles, consistent with a transformational leadership model. (Contains 3 tables.)

This paper analyses a survey of leadership development needs and current challenges of senior women at two different Australian universities. It found that their leadership development needs were quite similar: over 80 per cent of respondents considered that a senior women's leadership programme would provide knowledge and skills for leadership in the current tough working environment. The preferred content included skills in people management, political awareness, operational issues and career development, and preferred format was mentoring, peer networks, coaching and 360 degree feedback, and shadowing and mentoring at another university. The qualitative responses indicated several strong themes: the impact of excessive workloads and high levels of administration on their effectiveness; the need for peer and supervisor support and networks, underpinned by effective organisational skills and administrative support; and the gendering of careers, especially academic careers, evident in male colleagues receiving more support, resources and recognition. (Contains 6 tables.)

In the collegial model the basis for appointment to senior management in the collegial model is nomination by a community of scholars, whereas it is by line management in the managerial one. This article focuses on the basis of appointments in universities and the gendering of such structures. Data are drawn from qualitative interviews with both men and women senior manager-academics at Dean level and above in Ireland and Australia (N = 44). In both countries the power of the President/Vice-Chancellor (VC) was very much as a Chief Executive Officer in the managerialist model, rather than the "primus inter pares" of the collegial model. Moreover, Presidents/VCs controlled the appointments of Vice-Presidents/Deputy VCs and Deans and were seen as being able to affect the gender profile of senior management. However, in the Australian system (in contrast to the Irish one) there was no ambivalence about the VC actively rectifying gender inequalities in management. In a context where hybrid forms of management are emerging, this article questions the relevance of collegial/managerialist models in understanding the gendering of universities. (Contains 1 note.)

This paper reports on the second phase of a multi-country study examining cross cultural perspectives of gender and management in Higher Education Institutions (HEIs). It examines the broader labour market context and legislative frameworks for higher education in each country and then analyses the literature on women in university management. The paper presents the findings of research with male and female senior managers about their perceptions of women as HEI managers within changing organisational and management structures. It concludes that although HEI's are now largely aware of barriers to women getting into and on in senior management, they have not addressed the organisational structures and cultures that perpetuate this inequity. (Contains 3 tables.)

Women remain outsiders in university leadership and management. The literature indicates that discipline base, career mobility, experience outside academia, selection processes, and gender stereotyping may impact on women becoming senior managers. This article reports on research with current and former Vice-Chancellors, senior managers, and recruitment firms to identify skill requirements for effective leadership and management. Our research indicates gender is an issue in higher education leadership, in recruitment and selection, exclusion from male camaraderie, and preference for transformational leadership. This research will produce a skills benchmark to assess future leadership positions and hopefully cut across current gender bias.

This study explores leadership styles and gender in higher education (HE) by examining representation of female professors in Australian and Turkish universities and identifying barriers to achieving seniority. The paper explores factors, including leadership styles, which explain the higher representation of female professors in Turkey, despite legislative frameworks and strategies in Australia to improve representation of senior women. It then explores barriers to women's career advancement, including the difficult management culture, low morale, informal processes in appointment and promotion, and lack of training for management roles in Australia, and conflict between career and family roles in Turkey. Finally, the paper identifies the impact of strategic choices on leadership styles and women's career advancement. This research questions the impact of equal employment opportunity and affirmative action frameworks on women's representation as professors.

Climate change is 'the biggest global health threat of the 21st century', and healthcare provision itself comes at an environmental cost. Volatile anaesthetic agents are potent greenhouse gases, but emissions arising from these waste anaesthetic gases can be dramatically reduced through a number of simple actions. This editorial lays out the options for more sustainable equine anaesthesia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the "leaking pipeline" in women's participation rates from Bachelor to postgraduate research programmes. In examining projects at two Australian universities to identify and implement strategies to improve women's participation in research higher degrees, it focuses on three points of "leakage" between Bachelor and Bachelor with Honours degree programmes, Bachelor degree with Honours and postgraduate research programmes, and completion of postgraduate research and taking up a postdoctoral position, and the links between them. It examines three important consequences of women not undertaking or completing postgraduate research: entering academia at lower levels or in casual positions, often while doing postgraduate research part-time; tending to focus on teaching rather than research; and, due to under-representation at middle levels, not achieving a critical mass in senior academia. The paper suggests ways in which university policy may impact on women's participation in postgraduate research programmes through implementation of university-wide and departmental policies encompassing the strategies identified in these studies.

Senior academic women in Australian Universities, as elsewhere, continue to experience both direct and indirect discrimination, with the narrow white Anglo-Celtic male management profile is a factor in this discrimination. While higher education remains a hostile work environment for senior academic women their participation rates are unlikely to increase. This article explores the barriers that senior academic women experience. It then examines whether or not diversity management programmes might provide a useful management tool to increase the participation of senior women in higher education. If diversity management can impact on the management culture, more senior women may remain in universities and thereby impact on that culture.

Explores the barriers that senior academic women experience in Australia. Examines whether diversity management programs might provide a useful management tool to increase the participation of senior women in higher education. Asserts that if diversity management can affect the management culture, more senior women may remain in universities and thereby impact that culture. (EV)