'Patterns of recruitment of academic leaders to Australian universities and implications for the future of
higher education,' by
Susan Loomes, Alison Owens and Grace McCarthy in (2019) 41(2)
Journal of Higher Education Policy and Management 137-152 comments
This paper reports on research conducted to understand key
factors impacting the recruitment and selection of senior academic leaders in Australian universities. A key finding emerging from this research was an increasing reliance on
executive search firms when recruiting senior academic leaders. This reliance is driven by a range of factors including an
ageing and contracting pool of potential academic leaders,
growing competition domestically and internationally and
the declining attractiveness of academia as a sustainable
career in the context of increased casualisation of the academic workforce. Concurrently, workforce planning and succession planning have not been a high priority for many
universities. As a result, Australian universities are finding it
increasingly difficult to recruit senior academic leaders without
the use of executive search firms. These findings have significant implications for the higher education sector in Australia
and warrant further research.
The authors argue that the work
provides insights drawn from research conducted into the changing
nature of recruitment and selection of senior academic leaders in Australian
universities focusing on the growing dependence and influence of executive
search firms in tertiary education. It firstly provides a summary of the factors
impacting the university recruitment and selection process, such as growing
competition for academic staff, an ageing academic workforce, the declining
attractiveness of academia, and the lack of succession planning by Australian
universities. Secondly, and in this context, this paper reports in some detail,
research findings related to the growing reliance on executive search firms in
the recruitment and selection of senior academic leaders in Australian universities
and discusses the possible implications.
They go on to note
Whilst historically a job in a university was a job for life, all participants in this study
observed the diminishing attractiveness of academia due to decreased tenured positions.
This is consistent with Coates and fellow researchers (Coates et al., 2009; Coates &
Goedegebuure, 2012; Coates, Goedegebuure, Van Der Lee, & Meek, 2008), who have
warned that universities need to ensure the academic profession remains attractive.
Participants made comments such as
So I think the profession of academia has got a lot to worry about and many are not being
put into tenured positions. (University)
Generally speaking … one of the current major challenges is, most universities in Australia
are looking to do away with the notion of tenure. (Executive Search)
Whilst the Grattan Report (Norton, 2013) stated that most academic staff do not have
ongoing employment, it did not specifically report on the length of contract for senior
academic leader appointments. Participants in this study stated that in most cases,
senior academic appointments were typically short-term contracts (3–5 years) providing limited job security.
Participants in this research reported their university was already having an increasing
problem recruiting senior academics to specific disciplines such as accounting, law, engineering, marketing and medical-related areas, i.e., disciplines related to professional occupations with higher remuneration and job security than available at universities. Similar
findings were reported in a paper released a decade ago by Universities UK (2007).
Lack of succession planning
One of most significant issues raised by all participants was the lack of succession
planning and the lack of established ‘pipelines’ in Australian universities consistent with
research by Larkin and Neumann (2012). Although universities are investing a significant amount of money into recruitment, they are not all investing in developing
their own leaders from within.
One university participant said, ‘universities talk about workforce planning and
succession planning, I’ve not yet seen a university that has a handle on it.’
Other participants stated,
I think that universities are too afraid to talk succession planning because of the worries
about merit. It is a major missed opportunity and risk area. (Executive Search)
I say that succession planning is important, but I haven’t done anything myself around that
and we haven’t done anything as a university around that either. I don’t think this is new, but
when you are faced with a potential skills shortage, what you should be doing is looking at a whole range of different strategies, one of which is building the pipeline from the bottom. Not
just going out at an international level and saying, “we will just get them from somewhere”. It
needs to be a range of different strategies and building that pipeline. (University)
Rothwell (2010) highlights the importance of identifying, nurturing and promoting
talent from within and having established pipelines of talent coming through, to ensure
an organisation meets its strategic objectives. Succession planning does not appear to be
a high priority for Australian universities (Larkin & Neumann, 2012). No participant
universities in this study reported having established pipelines of potential leaders. This
is because universities want to appoint the best academics and researchers, and, in the
view of many participants, this means an international appointment. This is mainly
because universities want to elevate their research standing. These findings are consistent with the view of Scott et al. (2008), who suggest that Australian universities are
doing little to address pending recruitment challenges, and that they do not have
structured succession strategies in place.
Succession planning has obvious benefits, such as not having to compete either
locally or globally for talent. Other benefits are reducing costs (not requiring executive
search to attract talent) and being able to retain university knowledge, loyalty and
established cultures (Larkin & Neumann, 2012; McMurray et al., 2012).
Possible reasons for the neglect of succession planning at Australian universities include
a tendency to appoint senior leaders on relatively short-term contracts with diminished
focus on long-term strategic initiatives, such as workforce planning. Further it appears that
human-resource departments are stretched to their financial and staffing capacity and may
not have suitable personnel to implement succession planning across the university.
They conclude
This research identified key factors impacting the recruitment and selection of senior
academic leaders in Australian universities including growing competition for staff
and students from within Australia and overseas, an ageing academic workforce, the
declining attractiveness of academia as a profession and a lack of succession planning. This combination of factors has made it increasingly difficult for universities to
attract quality senior academic leaders. Traditional methods of recruitment, such as
advertising a position, are no longer effective; therefore, universities have turned to
executive search firms to help them recruit senior staff. By this process, universities
divest themselves of funds and influence over selection of candidates for leadership
positions. It is expensive to use executive search firms and also implies that universities are handing over some of the control and power to executive search firms
that may skew the type of candidates being presented to universities as part of the
recruitment process. Ideally, universities would be better served by recruiting their
own staff, perhaps from their large pools of sessional academic staff; however, this
would need comprehensive workforce planning that includes succession planning,
professional development and mentoring to build their workforce from within. To
facilitate this, universities would need to invest in staff who specialise in recruitment
and selection along with workforce planning and implementation. Whilst advocating
recruitment from within, the authors of this paper recognise that it is important to
also bring in staff from outside the university with new ideas and ways of doing
things. As competition for staff and students increases and as the baby boomers exit
the workforce it is going to becoming increasingly difficult for universities to recruit
quality senior academic leaders. The universities that make a serious investment and
commitment to workforce planning by building future talent from within will not
only retain university knowledge, loyalty and established culture but foster a true
commitment from current staff and be seen as an employer of choice from those
outside the university