Effective administration of university leadership in a selected institution in Durban

Abstract

University leadership and administration is a critical aspect as it is about the functioning of the entire institution. Effective and efficient administration of the university relies on the principal. Leading proponents encourage transformational leadership, moral stewardship, principal as an instructional leader, and principal as a communicator or community builder. Discovering effective leadership and administration mechanisms can help teach university decision and policy makers to implement leadership development which will lead to improved student achievement. The purpose of this article is to investigate the university senior leadership and its administration in order to improve efficiency and effectiveness holistically. The problem resulting to conducting of this study is the high level of both students and staff demonstrations annually in the selected university, these strikes end up affecting teaching, learning and research within the institution. The underlying question the study intends to address is: “Which factors hinder effective and efficient university administration?” Educational leadership changes from a managerial orientation to promote the significance of concentrating on the learning and teaching process and student success. Educational institution leaders’ competencies are always associated with continuous training and development they receive to make them better leaders. Hence, training and development in university leadership requires a systematic planning which will result to excellent institution education. In order to explain the phenomenon under study better, the Burns transformational theory founded by James MacGregor Burns will be utilised. The positivism paradigm is the philosophy adopted for this study. The survey will be conducted at the Durban University of Technology with the intention to address the question and the objective of the study. The questionnaires will be administered to 30 senior management members within the institution, including the Vice Chancellor and his Deputy, Deans, Directors and HODs.