Program Leadership From A Nordic Perspective - Managing Education Development

Program Leadership From A Nordic Perspective - Managing Education Development

A. Högfeldt, A. Cornell, M. Cronhjort, A. Jerbrant, R. Lyng, R. Kantola, et al, et al, et al, et al, et al, et al, et al (2012).  Program Leadership From A Nordic Perspective - Managing Education Development. 20.

Nordic Five Tech (N5T) is a strategic alliance between five technical universities in Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden. The overall aim is to utilize shared and complementary strengths and create synergy within education, research and innovation.

In this paper we focus on university educational development issues by investigating the program leadership at five Nordic technical universities. Specifically, the paper compares definitions, views and experiences of education leadership in the Nordic Five Tech (N5T) universities. The paper does this by, first, reviewing the definitions of roles and responsibilities for program directors at each university, and second, by presenting results from a survey carried out in March 2012 among program directors at the N5T universities.

Based on this data, we analyze how program directors experience their role, their possibilities to lead, and their opportunities of learning to lead. How is time for reflection and development as leaders handled at the different universities? The paper goes on to consider what impact the mandate of the leadership role has on the possibilities for developing educational programs. For instance, how can program directors ensure that learning objectives concerning generic skills and abilities are reached? How can program directors drive implementation of integrative and value-oriented topics such as sustainable development, innovation and entrepreneurship?

 

Authors (New): 
Anna-Karin Högfeldt
Ann Cornell
Mikael Cronhjort
Anna Jerbrant
Reidar Lyng
Raimo Kantola
Lauri Malmi
Ulrika Lundqvist
Johan Malmqvist
Peter Munkebo Hussmann
Jørgen Villadsen
Helge Brattebø
Tim Torvatn
Pages: 
20
Affiliations: 
KTH Royal Institute of Technology,Sweden
Aalto University, Helsinki, Finland
Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden
Technical University of Denmark, Denmark
Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), Trondheim, Norway
Keywords: 
education development
leadership
program management
program development
Nordic Five Tech
Year: 
2012
Reference: 
Nordic Five Tech, Nordic Five Tech Home Page, www.nordicfivetech.org, accessed on May 10, 2012.: 
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Sheppard, S. D., Macatangay, K., Colby, A., Sullivan. W. M., Educating Engineers: Designing for the Future of the Field, The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, Stanford, 2009.: 
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Edström, K., “Organizational Gravity – on Sustainability of Educational Development”, Proceedings of the 1st Swedish SUHF (The Association of Swedish Higher Education) Conference on Leading Higher Education, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, 2011.: 
Graham, R., Achieving Excellence in Engineering Education: The Ingredients of Successful Change, The Royal Academy of Engineering, London, UK, 2012.: 
Rauhvargers, A., Global University Rankings and their Impact, European University Association, Brussels, Belgium, 2011: 
Kinnunen, P., Challenges of Teaching and Studying Programming at a University of Technology - Viewpoints of Students, Teachers and the University. Doctoral thesis, Faculty of Information and Natural Sciences, Aalto University, Finland. December 2009. URL: http://lib.tkk.fi/Diss/2009/isbn9789522481955/. Accessed on May 16, 2012.: 
The Royal Institute of Technology (KTH), Education Assessment Exercise (EAE) – Utvärdering för kvalitetsutveckling på KTH – en projektsammanfattning (Evaluation for Quality Development at KTH – Project summary), 2011. The Royal Institute of Technology (KTH), Stockholm, Sweden. In Swedish. http://intra.kth.se/polopoly_fs/1.264430!/Menu/general/columncontent/attachment/EAE%20Projektsammanfattning.pdf. Accessed on May 16, 2012: 
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