LEADERSHIP IN INTERNATIONAL HIGHER EDUCATION

For international educators, leadership remains an elusive concept. As with every other endeavor, “leadership” is crucial to the success of advancing international education priorities on college and university campuses. The term senior international officer (SIO) is used primarily in the United States, and different titles are used in other countries to refer to an institution’s lead international administrator. It is important to first acknowledge that such leadership does not exist on many campuses worldwide, and in many other instances the leadership responsibilities may be divided among different individuals on the campus as opposed to being retained by one individual. Whatever the configuration of international education leadership, its importance is poised to grow as we move deeper into the 21st century. Still, styles and strategies of successful leadership clearly vary greatly among individuals and institutions, and at different stages of the internationalization process. Moreover, as professionals interacting with colleagues around the world, international educators intuitively understand that leadership is itself a culturally determined construct and its practice is shaped significantly by culture (Mir, 2010; Ncube, 2010) and gender (Devnew & Storberg-Walker, 2018).