The changing role of academic leadership in Australia and the Netherlands: who is the modern dean?

The New Public Management movement promoting private sector management practices in public sector bureaucracies has impacted higher education institutions in many countries, including Australia and the Netherlands. In these two countries, as elsewhere, universities are being asked to be more entrepreneurial, financially self-sufficient and innovative, while at the same time having their performance assessed and held accountable with respect to a variety of external compliance structures and policies. The focus of this chapter is on the changing role of the academic deanship in Australia and the Netherlands. The chapter is based on empirical research and attempts to assess to what extent the deanship currently reflects the importation of the rhetoric and management practices of the private sector into higher education. Are today’s deans the stereotyped managers that many of our colleagues over coffee and drinks make them out to be? Has managerialism become part and parcel of everyday academic life? Or is the situation far more complex as suggested by the outcomes of some similar studies into this phenomenon