Developing programme leadership in an Australian university: An institutional approach to professional learning and development

Academic programme leadership in universities is pivotal in fulfilling the institution’s purpose of offering quality educational experiences for students (Stensaker et al, 2018). Our chapter describes the Building Program Leadership Strategy designed and enacted at Griffith University during 2014–2018 that aimed to develop programme leadership through facilitating a coordinated, university-wide, systems-based approach to academic professional learning and organisational development. At Griffiths those that lead programmes of study are ‘Programme Directors’, in keeping with this edition we use the term ‘pro gramme leader’ (PL) throughout. Initially, we will provide a brief overview of our institutional context, before describing the strategy, focusing particularly on the professional learning approaches and activities developed and facilitated. We will then provide the findings of our participatory action research study, and share key learnings in relation to how the strategy influenced a shift in perceptions and practices of programme leadership by individual PLs and teams, along with the valuing of programme leadership by the wider University system..