One academic leader from a European university stated:

‘… Rector is the only one who has financial responsibility and decision power. We have to be informed; we have to support his agenda in term of budget. We don’t have the final decision, so the rector is always above us. So, he has the money, we have the expertise. So, if we want to spend his money, he has to relate the expertise. So, he is dependent on our loyalty and our expertise and we have dependent on his money. That’s how it works in my university…’. 

A similar case has been shared by another leader from a European university:

 

Another academic leader from a Chinese university commented:

 

Complementing on these main roles, some academic leaders explain the procedure of becoming an academic leader. As one academic leader from a European university puts it:

 

A comment from a Chinese academic member below illustrates: 

In today’s highly competitive higher education institutions there is a need for academic analytics to build stronger institutions, to plan better and make more efficient decisions. Commenting on analytics for academic leaders, one of the academic leaders from a European university shared her experience at her university: 

 

International cooperation is almost a mandatory practice for the countries’ visibility on science and technology and trust building among countries as well as engagement of the researchers among others. In the era of internationalization, EU and China, as pivotal forces, have placed a crucial importance on collaboration in all aspects due to the associated benefits and opportunities. This view was echoed by a European academic leader as follows:

 

A leadership style is how a leader provides direction, implement plans and motivate people. It can also be perceived as the way of leaders’ using power and competence. Leadership styles are generally identified by leaders’ personal strategies and approaches to achieve the objectives. A leader’s style can have a negative or positive impact on shaping employee behaviour and influencing their performance and motivation. 

 

Below are some stories and comments of some academic leaders regarding academic leadership style. An academic leader from a European university gives an example from a private university: 

 

Another academic leader in a European university provides her comments regarding leadership style:

 

An academic leader from a Chinese university mentioned the leadership style as follows:

 

Another academic leader proposes to adopt this leadership style in a European university. She commented:

 

 

Good leadership is defined as building collective vision and mission and creating appropriate set of values as well as establishing trust and respect (Cooper & Nirenberg, 2004). They further argue that these help people to focus on their contributions. According to Kotter (1996), a good leader creates a culture which even excels after the leader has left. The perceptions among European and Chinese leaders differ in what make a good leader. 

  

In Chinese universities, according to some academic members, a good leader should have strategies, can push up ranking, publications or other academic issue for the university. An academic leader from a Chinese university stated:

 

In European universities, on the contrary, according to some academic members, a good leader should bring the resource to the university and also know how to spend them effectively. A leader from a European university puts it as follows:

 

Similar to the service mission in European universities, another leader from a Chinese university mentioned: 

 

 

Motivation is the reason for an action. It further helps to express a behaviour which may result in reward or punishment (Tella et al., 2007). They state that it is like the relationship among need, drive and incentive. If there is a need, this will urge a person to perform an action i.e. drive, and if the person performs an action then he/she may get desired reward i.e. incentive.  According to a broader concept proposed by Hertzberg, Mausner and Snyderman (1959), there are two types of motivation: intrinsic coming from the person and extrinsic coming from the organization. What motivation includes in academic settings are described below by European and Chinese leaders. 

 

A Chinese academic leader puts it as follows:

 

A leader from a European university echoes the similar motivation for becoming an academic leader.

 

Another Chinese academic leader comments on the opportunities of being an academic leader as follows:

 

‘…I am the representative of my university. I am in middle level.  My university gives support for the middle level academic leaders. First, the university platform gives us more opportunities for the research. They can promote their academic professional development and the innovation and application of their project. Academic leaders foster natural project and some regional projects for our own province. The second one is that the university gives us honour to promote and develop the confidence and patience of our research. The third opportunity is the systematic design for middle level academic leaders. In my university, we have built reward system which makes the scholar to be the core of the university. There is also the opportunity for housing. My university offered me a good fortune. That is a very nice salary for me. After coming here, I have gained more chance. I am the director of International office in my university. They offered me some opportunities, like to attend Erasmus+ projects. Other universities in China, young scholars may not have these opportunities to attend such incentives, projects…’.  

 

Focusing on the responsibility, an academic leader from a European university utters:

 

Gmelch (2013) states that academic leaders typically get this position without leadership training, without even realizing the complexity of their roles and its cost to their lives. Moreover, leadership is sometimes perceived as a burden for research since leaders may need to spend more time on leadership rather than on research. When they become leaders, it is typical that they have difficulties combining these roles in one person, so finding the balance seems to be a challenge for many leaders (CASEAR, 2014). These challenges may vary between countries or even between universities in the same country.

Below a leader from a European university emphasizes role conflict:

Consistent with the European side, an academic leader from a Chinese university utters his challenge in different roles:

Because of the challenges in the position, people may be unwilling to get this position. An academic leader from a European university explains how they overcome this challenge:

Another leader from a Chinese university focuses on the challenges caused by macro management:  

 

‘… I have initiated a discussion on the nature of the Ph.D. program at my university. But our university, when it comes to academic practices, is very conservative. Even having this discussion is an accomplishment in itself. When we do something new, when we step-out of what we call routines, this is satisfactory…’. 

 

A Chinese academic leader:

 

‘… Actually, I haven’t had much experience in this position since I just took office a few months ago. But I do have to mention that every year, my master students successfully publish papers in the main journals of Peking University. As well, despite the current situation in China with the Covid-19 epidemic, the university’s courses and online teaching arrangements, as well as the work of the Faculty of Teacher Education are progressing smoothly…’.

 

‘… I hope that I can further improve my language expression and communication, and foreign languages. I hope I will have opportunities to actively participate in leadership training and development, and further improve related skills…’ 

‘… I involve my team members to keep them focused. In my team, I have two assistants and one advisor. The advisor's role is very clear and concrete. For the others, I have a distribution of tasks. The department heads are independent in their functions, but from time to time, I need certain minor things from them. I always allocate tasks, and of course, I always want to get their perspectives. Because by doing so, it prevents mistakes. Our faculty is very heterogeneous. I have advisors and assistants from different disciplines. They bring their own perspective. This is very important. When I do it in this way, I eliminate the risk of making mistakes…’.

 

‘… The strongest body in our administration is the academic board, where we have all the heads of the departments. First, I always get myself informed about the issues and typically, when we discuss things, I collect information. Then I raise the issue in front of the department heads, and I ask the simple question- "What do you think?" Then it works by itself as a chemical reaction. They start to discuss amongst themselves…’.

 

An academic leader from a Chinese University shares:

 

‘… After learning and understanding new ideas, I would share the relevant materials I have learned with the team I manage; if possible, it is best to lead the team to visit and exchange in the field to experience the new ideas and ideas first-hand, which would have better effect…’.

 

‘… The LEAD2 project provides possibilities for international collaboration to widen academic practice. It has contribution to myself and to my institution. For myself, I have met good leaders, strong leaders in the LEAD2 project meetings, workshops, and through the network itself. Talking to these people is in itself instructive and inspires me to think and see the issues I am confronting in myorganization differently. It broadens your horizons. For my institution, the LEAD2 project provides possibilities for international collaboration to widen academic practice. For example, whenever we need an international collaboration, I always refer to the LEAD2 project or the connections that I built through LEAD2…’