Academic Leadership Courses
Academic leadership development with science, by scientists, for scientists.
Positive academic leadership is critical for creating a constructive collegial academic culture. But,
- how do you ‘do’ positive academic leadership?
- How do you lead clever and independent-minded academics?
- How do you bring out the best in people as a leader?
- How do you and your colleagues not just survive but thrive?
Informatics Europe provides two unique, evidence-based development opportunities for academic leaders at all levels of experience in Informatics and related disciplines, facilitated by Prof. Geraldine Fitzpatrick, Prof. Austen Rainer.
Online Course
Current cohort: Spring '24
The online course is relevant for academic leaders at all levels of informal and formal leadership. It provides the opportunity for an extended period of reflective practice over several months.
Bespoke Course
We can work with you and your institute to provide a cost-effective, bespoke, evidence-based course for your academic leaders at all levels of experience in informatics and related disciplines. To explore this opportunity, please contact us at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
What Our Participants Say
"I found the academic leadership course extremely valuable. The entire course was very focused and discipline-centric. The learners had rather similar backgrounds and shared the same challenges, leading to very interesting discussions and developing wonderful group dynamic. The course is perfect for all."
2022 Course Participant
"It was really a wonderful course we had with so many valuable take-homes that I’m now working to implement in my leadership practice."
2022 Course Participant
"Thanks for a wonderful course, it really changed the way I think about my work. It cannot be said enough: this course was the best course I have ever taken."
2021 Online Course Participant
"The course was a great experience. Not only did I learn a lot about leadership in a very mindful and self-reflective way from highly engaged teachers. I also got to interact with a great bunch of colleagues some of which I'm still in contact with. Definitely worth the experience!"
2021 Online Course Participant
"This was a fantastic experience, with lots of opportunity for insight, reflection and networking."
2020 Online Course Participant
Our Course Facilitators
Learn more about our facilitators on their individual homepages: Geraldine Fitzpatrick, Austen Rainer.
What's your idea about leadership? Geraldine and Austen share their views on changing cultures, leading people and value in the podcast here, recorded in December 2022. Another podcast recorded in February 2021 is also available here.
Since Autumn 2020, academic leaders from over 45 institutions across and beyond Europe have participated in our courses - join us in our next cohorts!
Courses FAQs
Course Content and Structure
What are the differences between online and bespoke courses?
- See the table for the summary points of each type of course:
| Online course | Bespoke course |
| For all leaders at all levels, where we use different breakout room configurations to enable both cross-role and within-role experience sharing as relevant to the topic. | We will work with you and the facilities you have in your institution, e.g., for face-to-face, online, hybrid or other course arrangements. We can offer a range of structured and informal activities. |
| Offers the advantage of an extended period of engagement and reflection, with others, over seven 2-hour online sessions, focussing on one topic at a time, including in between work and time to practise skills in your work environment. | Offers the advantage of concentrated time for your academics to step out of their work environment, focus on their leadership, reflect with others, and strengthen their working relationships. |
| The course takes place with Zoom, and makes use of DropBox, Miro, Padlet and Slack to encourage interactive collaborative engagement. | The course would take place at a location and duration to be agreed with you, e.g., at your institute, or at a separate location, or online. |
| When difficult to get away e.g., because of caring responsibilities, travel or budget constraints, etc. | When there is value in a set of colleagues dedicating a concentrated period of time to work on their leadership. |
| Ongoing access to a community of like-minded individuals. | Strengthened relationships with colleagues, and introduction to an international community of academic leaders who have participated in related courses offered by Informatics Europe. |
| Access to evidence-based materials to support continued development. | Access to evidence-based materials to support continued development. |
What is the difference between leadership and management as foci for these courses?
- Our courses are particularly focused on the leading of self and others in an academic context, recognising the unique characteristics of academic work and the challenges of learning clever academics.
- The courses do not focus on the more management-related aspects of leadership such as budget management, resource allocation strategies, nor on more strategic visioning aspects of leadership.
How are these courses different from other leadership courses offered by my institution?
- Many courses currently offered by universities are delivered by consulting agencies with leadership/management expertise in business/industry contexts.
- Our courses are specifically grounded in academic leadership, led by scientists who bring both personal academic leadership experience as well as a strong educational grounding in the science of positive (academic) leadership.
- Our former participants also highlight the value of the community created around our courses, allowing engagement with other academics from a variety of institutions, geographies, etc for cross-context sharing.
What's the in-between self-work for the online course?
- The materials provided for self-work in advance of each online session of the course include videos/audio, slides, additional reading materials, and worksheets.
- The structure of the online sessions assumes participants have engaged with these materials and activities and then seek to deepen and workshop around the relevant topic within the session
- Participants receive a pre-course activity and activities in preparation for the next online session. Participants also get dedicated access to two DropBox sites specific to their course, one for documents, and one for videos.
- We strongly encourage participants to look at the materials for the next week as soon as the previous session is finished to at least start some thinking on the topic and to schedule a specific time in their calendars to spend on this, ideally 1-2 hrs.
What's the work expected outside of the bespoke course?
Work outside of the bespoke course would be discussed as part of the design of the course. For example, sometimes we ask participants to complete a pre-course self-assessment or similar. Whether pre-work is appropriate would depend on the purpose and design of the bespoke course.
Is there an exam to evaluate what I have learnt from these courses?
- No, there is no exam. The focus is on supporting an ongoing reflective learning journey. However, we do invite ongoing personal reflection about the key takeaways for you and your context from the materials just covered, and how you would translate them into the next steps.
- There is a Certificate of Completion for the online course, provided by Informatics Europe. For the bespoke course, this can be discussed as part of the design of the course.
How long do I have access to the course materials?
You can download the course materials and have permanent personal access.
Eligibility and Registration
I am not a computer scientist but come from a related discipline and/or work with computer scientists. Will these courses be useful for me?
Yes! There is still common ground about how you lead academics in general (recognising academia has some unique leadership challenges compared with leadership in a business or industry context).
I am a non-academic leader. Will these courses be useful for me?
The general principles of leading people and positive leadership are transferable to most contexts so there would still be value in attending the course. Be aware that most participants will be from academia and most of the evidence, experience and examples presented and discussed will be framed within the context of academia.
I do not work in Europe. Can I join these courses?
Certainly! We have had people from the US, Canada in our online courses already. If you can make it work for your time zone you are more than welcome! We can also arrange a suitable time that aligns with your schedule for the bespoke course.
We're interested in these courses, but financing the fee is a challenge.
- Please contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. to discuss this and try to jointly find a solution.
- We are also working hard to find some industry funding/sponsorship in support of this. If you have any useful contacts, please let us know.
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