Progressing professional careers in UK higher education

Taylor and Francis PSP-A-359866.sgm 10.1080/13603100802596983 Perspectives 360-3108 (pri t)/1460-7018 (online) Original Article 2 09 & Francis 0 00Janu ry 2009 C liaWhitchur h .Whitchu ch@ioe.ac.uk Introduction This paper arises out of a study conducted for the Leadership Foundation for Higher Education on Professional Managers in UK Higher Education: Preparing for Complex Futures, and focuses on those aspects relating to professional and career development (Whitchurch 2008a). A paper outlining the first part of the study was published in an earlier issue of perspectives (Whitchurch 2007). This reviewed understandings in the literature about the roles and identities of professional staff in higher education, and of movements that were occurring in relation to these. The second, empirical part of the study involved interviews with twenty-nine middle and senior managers in three case institutions, and also seven heads of administration from institutions across the UK. This showed how individuals were not only interpreting their given roles in a more active way, but were also moving laterally across functional and organisational boundaries. The final report is available at: http://www. lfhe.ac.uk/publications/research.html. The study classified the identities of professional staff in four categories: