title: Striking a Balance in Navigating Accountability Challenges and Leadership Dynamics in Australian Third-Party Pathway Providers: A Qualitative Exploration of College Leaders’ Perspectives
Creators: name: Close, Robert
Publisher: name: University of Liverpool Repository
Year: 2024

description: While higher education pathway programs have been part of the Australian higher education sector for over thirty years, little is known about how accountability impacts leadership practices in third-party pathway colleges. This institutional type is now integral to the educational landscape yet remains relatively unexplored. Understanding how college leaders within pathway colleges experience institutional complexity and effectively respond in practice to the multiple, often conflicting demands of accountability, is imperative. Effective educational leadership is important for students' success and for ensuring institutions' quality and efficacy. The significance of this study lies in its exploration of a gap in the existing literature on sub-bachelor pathway education. Specifically, this research contributes to understanding how college leaders balance accountability demands through effective leadership practice. By emphasising institutional and sensemaking theories, the study specifically sought to comprehend the complexity created by accountability, particularly how institutional logics shape behaviour, facilitates agency, and influences leaders’ actions and practices. 
The approach adopted in this study is grounded in a phenomenological orientation, emphasising first-person experience to explore the lived experiences of college leaders. The study employed semi-structured interviews to establish trust and elicit rich, detailed accounts from individual leaders. Ten interviews were completed with experienced leaders, and the interviews were digitally recorded and transcribed. The data from interview transcripts were analysed using a thematic analysis approach to identify the college leaders' effective leadership practices and classify the most important leadership characteristics for success in this role. 
The study findings concluded that these institutional leaders engage in contextually bound practices, forming ‘a delicate balancing act’ when combined. This enactment of practices was based on the themes identified. The first theme included sustaining harmony and synergy, which involved serving as an arbiter of expectations, a rationaliser of purpose, and negotiating (trading off) between market and academic concerns. Secondly, adaptive management practices included integrating the educational-commercial interface, creatively allocating resources, and a nimbleness to change (tacking like a yacht). Thirdly, strategic influence activities included perception management, persuasive negotiation, and fostering collegiate dialogue. 
The study findings indicated that the role of third-party pathway college leaders is particularly challenging and requires leadership capabilities capable of managing uncertainty, ambiguity, and collaboration. Accordingly, there is a need for leadership development initiatives aimed at acquiring skillsets conducive to effective relationship building alongside an approach to leadership development that nurtures a confident mindset. This study offers leaders and employers practical insights into ongoing effective leadership practice within sub-bachelor pathway education.