Almost 30 administrators from Nordic universities came to the University of Iceland this spring to take part in a leadership course offered regularly by the Nordic Association of University Administrators (NUAS).
The course, entitled ‘Leading Sustainable Change in Nordic University Administration’, is made up of five modules that take place across the Nordic countries over a period of twelve months. It is offered only to administrators with staff management responsibilities. The aim is to educate participants about trends and developments in management and leadership within higher education in the Nordic countries, to examine key challenges in the Nordic university environment and create opportunities to strengthen leadership skills and share knowledge with peers.
The course is now running for the tenth time, coordinated and hosted by human resources departments at the Norwegian Academy of Music in Oslo, Linköping University in Sweden, Aalborg University in Denmark and the University of Vaasa in Finland, as well as the UI Division of Human Resources.
A total of 29 administrators from Nordic universities are currently taking the course, including two from UI and Reykjavík University. This year’s course, which attracted significant interest and was oversubscribed, was designed to appeal specifically to new administrators and those who have recently joined the higher education community.
Participants attended the first module in Aalborg last March, followed by the second module at the University of Iceland in May. The UI module explored how administrators can work with a team to get the best out of them. Emphasis was placed on fostering psychological safety in increasingly diverse workplaces, taking all groups into consideration and prioritising inclusion. The main instructor for the Icelandic module was the teamwork and leadership coach Kristrún Anna Konráðsdóttir.
Modules will next be held in Vaasa and Linköping this autumn, and the course will conclude with the Oslo module in February 2027.
Participants have expressed high levels of satisfaction in evaluations of the first two modules. As a result, NUAS has asked the course coordination team to begin preparations for the next course as soon as possible, planned to start in autumn 2027 or early 2028. The next course will be widely advertised to UI administrators when the time comes.
Learn more about the course
IMAGES/Tryggvi Már Gunnarsson
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