Advance HE has collaborated on a new publication with the Inter-American Organization for Higher Education (OUI-IOHE) and a number of other organisations working with the HE sector in Mexico, Managerial Competencies as a key factor for the success of HEIs.
The report was launched at the Conference of the Americas on International Education (CAIE-CAEI), Santiago, Chile, where Advance HE also led a session, ‘What works for Leadership in Higher Education’.
The report, subtitled, ‘Actions to strengthen leadership, a Quebec-Mexico collaborative study’, sets out a theoretical reflection on the context of practice in leadership positions at higher education institutions (HEIs) in Mexico in the development of executive action.
Key areas of the report include:
- A theoretical framework including: the definition of competencies; measuring competencies in HEI managers; competencies of senior management in HEIs in Mexico
- Methodology – the mixed methods approach, combining qualitative and quantitative perspectives. The intermingling of these in different stages allowed us to provide greater depth to the results obtained.
- The analysis and interpretation of results.
The authors highlight that the report offers, “…an inventory of effective competencies and challenges to be addressed within the top management of Mexican HEIs”. The report concludes that, “Servant leadership and empathy, the attitude towards one's own and others' well-being is the main characteristic of successful competency valued by the top management of Mexican HEIs and is also seen as the main challenge to be faced and taken up. The focus is not only on facing the current major challenges in the context of the pandemic, but also on the urgency of knowing how best to address and manage them successfully.”
The full report in available in Spanish and English.
Becky Smith, Assistant Director, International at Advance HE said of the publication: “This report demonstrates how, with effective collaboration across the sector, we can bring new insights to support the development of future leaders and strengthen their capacity to drive forward change and transform higher education.”
OUI-IOHE hopes that the study will be replicated in other countries. The findings from this research will contribute to the work Advance HE is currently undertaking to develop a global leadership survey and framework which was introduced at the CAIE-CAEI session where attendees were also invited to provide their perspectives on the importance of leadership skills and competencies.
The report is the outcome of the XVII Quebec-Mexico Working Group of the Ministry of International Relations of La Francophonie (MRIF), under the coordination of the Institute of University Leadership Management (IGLU) of the Inter-American University Organization (OUI-IOHE), and represents the inter-institutional effort in collaboration with the Universidad Veracruzana de México, Advance HE, the National Association of Universities and Institutions of Higher Education (ANUES) and the National Association of Technological Universities (ANUT).