5
FOREWORD
Dame Ruth Silver
This is a timely report that examines college leadership through
the lens of the changing role of colleges as leaders of place.
As the authors note, the past decades have been ones of nearconstant turbulence in the further
education sector, creating new
challenges for college leaders, in terms both of managing cycle
after cycle of sometimes ill-conceived change and of rethinking
their mission and approach to survive and succeed in a brave new
world in which collaboration rather than competition is
becoming key.
The college sector looks very different today than it did when
I first joined it. Part of this process of change has been the
deepening of colleges' role in their communities, as well as a
growing recognition, regionally and locally, that further education
has something significant to contribute to the economic, social
and civic growth of their localities.
It is important that we understand these changes, the impact
they are having on the ground, and how - and with what values -
leaders are responding. For that reason, I am particularly pleased
to find that this report begins in listening mode. What strikes me
from the very detailed interviews conducted with colleagues in
each of the four nations is the thoughtful and serious-minded
contribution college leaders are making at local and regional
levels, while remaining clear and clear-sighted about their own
mission to lead learning.