The Frontstage of Leadership? Vice Chancellor Profiles and the Performance of Self

Abstract

What makes a Vice Chancellor a Vice Chancellor? This article assessesthrough unobtrusive research methods-the 37 public profiles of Australia Vice Chancellors in the nation's public universities. I deploy non-reactive methods to locate the characteristics deemed of value in each profile, such as qualifications, research field, teaching expertise, personal life, leisure pursuits, and educational and noneducational experiences. I track similarities and differences between the profiles and ponder the development of a 'genre' of shared characteristics. In this first international study, the goal is to assess whether recent controversies about university leadership are the result of a 'few bad apples' or a systematic valuing of particular attributes and the neglect of other, crucial necessities of university leadership, particularly after a pandemic.

The Vice Chancellor in Australian Universities: Understanding Leadership Beyond ‘Bad Apples’ and ‘Unicorns’

“…This research project has been built from the data that VCs and Universities are willing to disclose. The gaps in the information -regarding personal life, leisure interests, research or teaching expertise -are important and are probed in a parallel study (Brabazon, 2021b). What these absences confirm is that information is tightly controlled around Vice Chancellors.…”

“…The 'third path' -administration -is founded on mediocrity in teaching and research. The Vice Chancellor profiles confirm that this mediocrity is denied through a lack of detail about qualifications and avoidance of any avenues for verification of experience or expertise (Brabazon, 2021b). The metrics, the KPIs and the 'standards' that are constructed for others, and not verified or proven through the demonstrated ability of the leaders implementing them, is presenting a visceral cost to the higher education sector.…”

Universalizing science literacy: How to transcend deficit models of teaching and learning

“…University leadership in this state cannot address the deep challenges and opportunities in teaching and learning cultures (Brabazon, 2021). The sector is confronting not only critique, but apathy.…”

The Auditory Academic Transforming the Soundscape of Scholarship

“…Conversely, I cut away some sensory experiences, and probe the transformation of meaning for academics as we are restructured, made redundant, become sick and are discarded from the workforce, and die. The sickness of our universities summons inelegant proxies, including the mental health challenges of PhD students (Evans et al, 2018), problematic leadership cultures (Brabazon, 2020;Brabazon, 2021), and the retraction of both the natural sciences and humanities, validating applied knowledge with the foundational disciplines discarded. To understand these troubling trajectories, this article summons key scholars of sound and communication to then probe the nature of sonic resistance for a multimodal future.…”