Portraying the role

: A study of undergraduate Programme Leaders at a teaching-intensive university in the UK

Abstract

Programme Leaders (PLs) in Higher Education (HE) hold a complex role that often lacks formal recognition, appears unrewarded, and has responsibilities that link to institutional reputation through external performance metrics. How this influences role-holders’ construction of professional identity, and how they can be better supported, is the focus of this interpretive interview-based study, following seven Undergraduate (UG) PLs over the course of the academic year 2020/21. PLs are presented through ‘portraiture’ capturing the ‘complexity of human experience and organisational life’ (Lawrence-Lightfoot and Davis, 1997, p. xv). A cross-case thematic analysis illuminated aspects of the organisational context that influenced PLs’ experiences.

Findings from this study suggest that how PLs see themselves in the role is synonymous with construction of professional identity. The absence of formal training and induction hinders role clarity and understanding of responsibilities, increasing PLs’ sense of personal accountability. PLs within academic schools with distributed leadership, where they were given autonomy, were better able to view themselves as leaders. This was augmented by a collaborative senior management team and opportunities to connect to other PLs. In hierarchical school structures PLs seemed disempowered and had an absence of role understanding, autonomy and relatedness. The findings show how the National Student Survey (NSS) places disproportionate pressure on PLs to feel wholly accountable for a ‘flawed metric’ that includes factors that are outside their ability to control or influence. The NSS, for some PLs, has become a proxy of their performance.

This study extends knowledge of the PL role and professional identity construction, illuminating reasons for variances in practice seen in previous studies within a teaching-intensive university. It supports the need for culture change around this challenging but strategically important role, along with the importance of ensuring it is valued, and resourced, as the leadership role it is.

Date of Award	5 Dec 2023
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	University of Bristol
Supervisor	Rafael Mitchell (Supervisor) & Navin Kikabhai (Supervisor)