Managing leadership in the UK university: a case for researching the missing professoriate?

This article offers a critical review of literature dealing with the topic of educational management and academic leadership as applied to the role of the professor or professoriate in the UK. The review identified a range of leadership issues and associated contemporary developments in the ‘management’ of higher education. The subject of the professor as educational leader, however, stands out as an area of little or no research activity. For example, there was a notable silence on a range of issues to do with recruitment, appointment, productivity, value and succession planning for the role, engagement, operation and work of the professor and the professoriate. The article concludes that there is a case for research on the role of the professoriate across different disciplines and institutions in the UK, which would focus explicitly on the leadership role, but also explore the lived experience of the professor in UK universities.