A CONCEPTUAL STUDY ON ACADEMIC LEADERSHIP-NEED, SKILLS AND CHALLENGES

Abstract

The spread of education in society is the foundation of success in today’s globalised world, where the real wealth of a country is not in its tangible natural resources but in knowledge, which is the drive of the economic development. Education in India has always been a significant instrument for social and economic transformation. Leadership emphasizes teamwork, collaboration and solidarity and removing barriers to communication and original thinking. Leadership, with its varied definitions, is one of the most studied fields in the social sciences. It has gained importance in every walk of life, from politics to business, and from education to social organizations. Academic leadership as whole is an evolving concept across the globe. India's higher education system is the third largest in the world, next to United States and China. So the need of the hour is to build academic leadership. The paper focuses on the necessity of academic leadership; identifies the skills required for effective academic leadership and the means to achieve and develop; addresses the challenges; involves support required for mentoring of academic leadership and analyses the reasons of refusal for leadership