The SSPG survey "General Management Competencies of Senior Leaders of Swiss Higher Education Institutions"

Recent trends indicate a notable shift towards the professionalization of higher education institutions (HEIs), leading to more academics assuming leadership roles. Factors contributing to this shift include the expansion and diversification of responsibilities, the multiplication of internal and external stakeholder expectations, and changes in governance structures. Academics taking on leadership positions within HEIs, often referred to as 'academic managers,' often do so without comprehensive management training, while ‘professional managers’ (often externally recruited) frequently lack a deeper understanding of the academic values and context of HEIs. This gap underscores the necessity for distinct management competencies, especially in roles involving significant institutional responsibilities.

As there is few evidence on the biographies and career paths of senior leaders at Swiss HEIs and the general management competencies necessary for successfully assuming their leadership roles, the team of the Swiss School of Public Governance at ETH Zurich conducted a survey among senior HEI leaders in Switzerland. Our sample covers all types of HEIs in Switzerland and includes senior HEI leaders with overarching institutional responsibilities (rectors, presidents) or with significant divisional responsibilities – academic and non-academic (e.g., deans or department heads, heads of central support units) – in contrast to positions with the scope of managing a single research group (e.g., professorships). The following table provides an overview of the comprehensive sample of the senior HEI leaders included in the survey. About one half of the sample is part of the (extended) HEI executive board. We further differentiate between three kinds of positions held by senior HEI leaders in our sample:

- Positions with an overall institutional responsibility (rectors, presidents)
- Positions with significant academic divisional responsibilities (functional responsibility or responsibility for an academic department; e.g., deans or department heads)
- Positions with significant non-academic divisional responsibilities (responsibility for an overarching cross-divisional/support function; e.g., heads of central support units)

We collected the data on this comprehensive sample using publicly available information from institutional websites, organisational charts, and governance documents.

In addition to the positions, biographies and careers of senior HEI leaders, the survey focused on the relevance of a comprehensive set of general management competencies for effective HE management, the gaps experienced by these leaders in making the transition to the leadership position, and the strategic challenges that HEIs face today and in the near future. With an impressive response rate of 64%, the 312 survey respondents cover all types of HEIs and all Swiss regions. Moreover, they represent different hierarchical levels as well as both ‘academic managerial’ and ‘professional managerial’ positions. To complement the findings of the online survey, we invited a selected group of respondents to participate in structured interviews.

A big thank you to all those who took an interest and participated in the survey. We are currently diving into the data and preparing in-depth interviews to shed more light on specific aspects of the survey.

For more information, please stay tuned for the first results, which will be published soon on our website. Furthermore, we plan to publish the comprehensive study findings this autumn. To continue engaging with our community and discuss these findings in more depth, we are considering organising a networking event this autumn.