Change leadership within academic departments and colleges presents challenges distinct from broader institutional transformation. Academic units operate with specialized governance structures, professional identities, and decision-making processes that require tailored change approaches. This brief integrates research insights with practical consulting experience to guide academic leaders through departmental and college-level change initiatives, offering actionable strategies that balance scholarly rigor with practical implementation.
Beyond the Credential Factory: Why Higher Education Must Shift from Management to Flourishing
For decades, higher education leadership has obsessed over “student success” as a purely operational metric. We track retention and graduation rates and postgraduation outcomes with the same linear precision that
Yoshitaka Iwasaki
August 3, 2026
