Program Leadership from a Nordic Perspective – Program Leaders’ Power to Influence their Program

In this paper a continuation research at five technical universities in Nordic countries (N5T network) in 2012 is presented, where the aim was to find out how the program leaders conceived their function, role and mandate, and the work situations between the universities were compared. The previous research demonstrated that program leaders have quite different positions, strategies and methods when it comes to monitoring and developing their programs. In this paper, a deeper investigation is carried out of the (im-) possibilities to make real influence on the study courses that constitutes the respective Engineering study programs. Eight program leaders from the five N5T universities have been interviewed, and the analysis of these studies, has culminated in a model for the analysis of program leadership for Engineering education development.

Proceedings of the 9th International CDIO Conference, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Cambridge, Massachusetts, June 9 – 13, 2013.