Leading universities through turbulent times… new CASE Global Leaders Programme launches for Australia and New Zealand
CASE launches new global programme to support university leaders navigating the growing geopolitical storm.
Introducing the inaugural Australia and New Zealand CASE Global Leaders Programme - applications now open.
View the Australia and New Zealand 2025 programme.
As Australia prepares for its federal election, a new CASE Global Leaders Programme launches to forge connections, share challenges and facilitate greater exchange between university leaders in Australia and New Zealand, the US, UK and Canada.
Led by Professor Mark Scott AO, President and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Sydney, and supported by an outstanding faculty of leading university advocacy, engagement and advancement practitioners, the CASE Global Leaders Programme takes its inaugural cohort of Australian and New Zealand senior university leaders to the UK in the Autumn of 2025.
Below, the faculty leading on the inaugural Australia and New Zealand cohort make the case for why the new programme provides university leaders with an outstanding international executive development experience designed for troubled times.
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Across the world, universities find themselves on the back-foot as they try to manage a surge of reputational issues driven by geopolitical turbulence, policy changes, culture wars and fundamental shifts to the global world order.
Higher education institutions must now navigate a challenging political, cultural and regulatory climate.
Globally, the higher education sector finds itself having to fundamentally rethink how it approaches the stewardship of institutional reputation. But despite striking similarities to the challenges facing different higher education systems, how are we learning from each other? How do we avoid reinventing the same wheels, making the same mistakes and trotting out the same playbook? How might we better share our collective insights and experiences to strengthen our sector?
As a result, university leaders need to know what excellence looks like across reputation, engagement, advancement and advocacy – and how these all come together as a coherent strategy that underpins our very social license and impact. In response to these challenges and this need for a more integrated strategic response, we think a new model of professional development is needed.
The CASE Global Leaders Programme is an executive leadership opportunity for difficult times, with an ambition to increase the geopolitical resilience of our sector. It will facilitate the exchange of ideas, learning and candid conversations between university leaders from Australia and New Zealand, the UK and Europe, Canada and the United States. Our programme will support leaders to develop solutions that are informed by what works (and what doesn’t) from universities around the world. Each programme will include:
· An exceptional outbound international study tour
· A curated cohort of board-level university leaders
· A programme of professional development including action-learning sets and masterclasses from experts outside of higher education
· Engagement with an inbound study tour of international university leaders
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Introducing the inaugural Australia and New Zealand CASE Global Leaders Programme – applications now open
View the Australia and New Zealand 2025 programme.
Beginning with an international study tour to some of the UK’s leading institutions, the Australia and New Zealand 2025 cohort will include visits to the University of Oxford, the University of Glasgow, University College London, the Universities for the North East of England Partnership, the University of Exeter and the University of Bristol. It will also include special sessions focused on the current political and media climate, as well as dinner at the Universities UK Annual Conference for vice-chancellors and a special diplomatic reception in London.
Over the next year, the cohort will then meet for a series of masterclasses, action-learning sets and discussions curated by the faculty and delivered by outstanding practitioners from within the higher education sector, as well as experts from beyond it.
They will then also spend time with an inbound international cohort of university leaders to compare approaches across different systems and cultures. Finally, delegates will become part of a new global alumni community invited to attend a dedicated event at the CASE Summit in New York City every July, as well as national conferences for institutional leaders.
Applications are now open for university senior leaders from Australia and New Zealand with an interest in developing their institution’s resilience and expertise in global reputation, geopolitics, communications, branding and marketing, advancement and fundraising. The first deadline for applications is Friday 2nd May 2025.
To arrange a conversation about the programme contact info@casegloballeaders.com or apply here.
As the faculty for this inaugural cohort from Australia and New Zealand, we would be delighted if you could join us.
Kirsten Andrews, Vice-Principal (External Relations), the University of Sydney
Sue Cunningham, President and CEO, CASE
Professor the Hon. Verity Firth AM, Vice-President Societal Impact, Equity and Engagement at the University of New South Wales (UNSW
Professor Jessica Gallagher, Deputy Vice-Chancellor (External Engagement), The University of Adelaide
Jennifer Karlson, Vice-President, Advancement and Community Engagement, Advancement and Community Engagement, The University of Queensland
Nathalie Trott, Director – Development, Griffith University
Alex Favier, Founder and Director of Favier Ltd and former Director of Global Reputation and Relations at the University of Nottingham