This book focuses on developing an understanding of the complex interplay of forces acting on individual universities and higher education systems to enable leaders and practitioners to take purposeful and strategic action. It explores the challenging landscape of higher education and the pressures that are reshaping the university as a societal institution, describing the complex interplay of technological, sociological, political and economic forces driving change. The issues analysed are global in scope, reflecting the diversity of contexts, but also the common nature of the challenges facing institutions individually and collectively. The analysis draws on the lessons learnt and evidence from over fifty organisational case studies undertaken by the author over the past decade, exploring organisational change in higher education institutions in New Zealand, Australia, the United States and the United Kingdom, and on his engagement as president of the ACODE organisation with colleagues responsible for learning technological change in Australasia. The book helps institutions respond to technological change purposefully, in ways that build upon a clear understanding of the complex nature of the existing institution, its students and the organisational context.

Dr Stephen Marshall is an Associate Professor in Educational Technology at the Victoria University of Wellington Centre for Academic Development and president of the Australasian Council on Open and Distance Education. Stephen is a member of the New Zealand Ministry of Education Tertiary E-Learning Reference Group, associate editor of the Australasian Journal of Educational Technology, and Co-Editor of the Higher Education Research and Development journal. Stephen leads Victoria University Digital Vision and Strategy for Learning and Teaching initiatives and researches in the areas of e-learning benchmarking, plagiarism and academic integrity, intellectual property, and the development of educational policy and strategy supporting and encouraging the effective use of technology. He is co-creator of the internationally recognised and applied e-learning maturity model and is currently developing a national capability framework for tertiary education for the New Zealand Tertiary Education Commission.