Leadership and Development Programmes

HUMANE designs Leadership & Development programmes for senior leaders and managers of professional services in universities to empower professionals at every stage of their career journey, fostering strategic thinking, operational excellence, and collaborative leadership.

We offer two distinct Leadership & Development tracks tailored to the specific challenges and responsibilities of senior specialist leadership roles in university professional services. 

Track One: Residential School Programmes 

Our two thematic Winter School and Summer School are Leadership and Development programmes that bring together senior leaders and managers from specialist professional services in the university administration who demonstrate real potential and the capacity to become influential senior managers. 

The Winter School focuses on leading policy and strategic change in internationalisation; the Summer School on leading change management and transformation of university professional services.

Participants practise strategy formulation and implementation, working on the strategies of case institutions, delivering their analysis and recommendations for future developments.      

Track Two: Preparing for Strategic Professional Leadership Programme

Our generic Preparing for Strategic Professional Leadership Programme is designed to cultivate the leadership skills of experienced professional service senior leaders (e.g. directors or heads of HR, finances, estates, IT, etc.) and directors of large faculties who aspire to move into more senior positions, become senior leaders of other professional service leaders in their institution, or broaden their impact. 

Aspiring university directors (or equivalent) must understand their position in their institution’s leadership pipeline, recognising the challenges they will face as they move into senior strategic roles, and identifying the additional leadership skills required. They must understand key global trends that impact higher education and implications for professional service delivery: to leverage the potential of Artificial Intelligence, navigate strategic finances and sustainability, attract and retain a highly skilled, diverse and multigenerational workforce. Achieving these goals demands impactful leadership, exceptional management skills and a growth mindset.

Participants work on a major organisational challenge (from their own institution) and their related personal leadership challenges.  During the programme they are required to produce a strategic action plan to deal with these challenges in their institution.    

Programme Format & Delivery

We use a blended learning approach designed for busy executive university leaders with keynote presentations, interactive workshops, peer learning session and practical assignments.

The Preparing for Strategic Professional Leadership Programme also offers participants one-on-one consultations (coaching/mentoring) with experienced institutional leaders.

To see further information about HUMANE’s Track One and Track Two programmes, click on the buttons below.