This late autumn, both academic leadership and management and leadership in general are being highlighted at Stockholm University in various ways. The University Board and the Consultative Assembly are about to begin work on developing a requirements profile for a new President from 1 February 2025. I myself have just appointed deputy vice presidents and deans to lead our academic areas and faculties over the coming three-year period. As convinced as I am of the importance of layered leadership in making a large organisation like Stockholm University run smoothly, particularly with our extensive delegations, these are incredibly important decisions. I am confident that the newly appointed deans and deputy vice presidents will perform their duties well.
The University Director also recruited a new Head of Student Services in the autumn, and recruitment of a new Head of IT Services and Head of Security is underway – all of which are key functions for ensuring that the Senior Management Team functions well. And next week, Åsa Borin and I will visit the new manager training programme together, where we will meet new heads of department, administrative managers and division heads in the Management Team. This is always a welcome opportunity for an open exchange on the opportunities and challenges of leadership across our broad university.
The theme of leadership was also on the agenda of the President’s head of department meetings, with a particular focus on the role of head of department – which in my opinion is the most difficult and most important leadership role within the university. Personally, I am convinced that the polarisation between line management and collegiality is detrimental. It is essential that academic leaders have the trust of their colleagues – even managers in the Management Team and administrative managers need to understand and respect the importance of collegiality. At the same time, with the increasingly complex leadership required at our higher education institutions, it is currently impossible to apply the principle of collegiality to the point of absurdity, for example by having heads of department and deans freely selected by those who will serve under them. Leadership at a university, which is also an administrative authority, is based on those who delegate – ultimately the President – trusting that those who receive the delegation can also handle it wisely. This requires good insights into a very complex reality, ranging from education and research issues to purely administrative issues.
I would like to underscore how proud I am that Stockholm University does so well in terms of recruitment – many people want to come here because of our good reputation as an academic environment. This is very much due to good leadership on the part of our deans, heads of department and managers.
This text is written by Astrid Söderbergh Widding, President. It appears in the section ”Words from the University’s senior management team”, where the management team take turns to write about topical issues. The section appears in every edition of News for staff which is distributed to the entirety of the University staff.