Emotion in leadership: a cross-cultural study of heads of department and academic staff at Georgian and English universities

The thesis examines the emotional experience of departmental leadership from the perspectives of heads of department (HoDs) and academic staff across Georgian and English universities. While scholarly interest in the emotional side of educational leadership is growing, cross-cultural research on the emotional dynamics of HoD-staff relationships in academia remains fragmented. To understand the interplay between emotion, higher education (HE) leadership and culture, a sequential mixed-methods design was adopted. An online bilingual questionnaire, pretested through cognitive interviews, was combined with vignette-based semi-structured interviews. In total, 296 individuals responded to the survey from 20 universities, eight in Georgia and 12 in England. Out of those surveyed, 39 participated in individual interviews. Descriptive and inferential statistics were performed in SPSS to analyse the survey results while a thematic analysis of the interview data was conducted using NVivo. Triangulating the quantitative and qualitative findings allowed the research problem to be seen from multiple angles, providing complementary rather than confirmatory evidence. The study found that the emotional experience of departmental leadership was shaped by unique contextual features of the comparison academia. The results showed discrepancies between the HoDs’ self-perceptions of their leadership and the way it was perceived by the academic staff. Yet, there was general agreement that the HoD’s ability to walk in others’ shoes and engage the hearts was central to departmental leadership. Apart from highlighting the academic staff’s concerns, the analysis suggested the need to understand the emotional demands of the HoD’s role. The study makes an original contribution to knowledge as it is the first to compare the emotional dimensions of HE leadership in Georgia and England. To date, there is no published research on middle leadership at a Georgian university and this work adds to the limited knowledge base on the former Soviet academia. The study also contributes to cross-cultural research methodology with an innovative research design. The findings carry practical implications that inform departmental leadership selection and development across culturally diverse universities

Listening to locals: regional spaces in higher education in the global south

One of the contemporary trends in global higher education is the emergence of regional spaces that transcend national boundaries, fostering cross-border integration and cooperation. This paper presents original data from surveys of university international officers and interviews with national policy-makers to explore regional spaces in higher education across the Caucasus (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia) and Central Asia (Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan). The findings unveil a complex landscape of spatial identities marked by diversity and tensions. The European space is recognised as by far the most important space in higher education. At the same time, the Eurasian/the Commonwealth of Independent States’ space(s) remain to be prominent in higher education, albeit to a varying degree in different countries. The study also observes the nascent development of immediate geographic spaces in Central Asia and the Caucasus, where participants express enthusiasm for collaborative efforts with neighbouring countries to advance common interests in higher education and research

The Big Read Collaboration between Kingston University, the University of Wolverhampton, Edge Hill University, and the University of the West of Scotland, 2018–2019

This paper outlines the experience of four universities that collaborated on a pre-arrival shared reading project, the Big Read, in 2018/2019. They did so primarily to promote student engagement and retention and also to ease the transition into higher education, particularly for first-generation students, to promote staff connectedness, and to provide a USP (unique selling point) for their institution. The paper covers all the associated processes, from isolating the respective aims of the collaborators to the choosing and sharing of a single agreed title. In analysing the outcomes, recommendations are made for future cross-institutional projects of this kind