While demands on academic leadership in higher education have been increasing, there is a lack of empirical studies exploring the effectiveness and impacts of leadership development interventions. In addition, recent studies suggest a model of leadership development from international approach. Unfortunately, evaluation of those programs is scarce in the available literature. This article presents the results of the mid-term impacts of an international academic leadership development (ALD) program that has been organised since 2019. The project involved six European and six Chinese universities. After 2 years of project implementation, participants were invited to take the online survey and follow-up interview. 92 participants voluntarily took part in the online survey. Of those, 21 participants participated in semi-structured interviews. A mixed-methods approach using an online questionnaire and semi-structured interviews was utilised in to evaluate each individual’s behavioral changes. The findings revealed substantial impacts on participants in two major respects: personal growth and professional practices. The research uniquely provides empirical evidence concerning the mid-term impacts of this international leadership development program that has equally emphasized leader development and leadership development. Theoretical, practical, and policy implications were presented.

A mixed-methods design was utilized in the current study because: (1) this design supports the facilitation of data triangulation and complementarity across multiple data sources in order to obtain comprehensive and coherent insights into the chosen topics (Creswell, 2009); and (2) this design is helpful to examine the impacts of leadership development program endorsed by previous studies (Liu, 2019; Ries, 2019; Wallace et al., 2021). Participants in this study were leaders and academics originating from European and Chinese higher education institutions that had participated in the program for at least more than one year. In total, 92 valid responses in the quantitative dataset were used, with no cases of missing data. The qualitative dataset comprises 21 interviewees who voluntarily took part in these interviews. The quantitative data was collected using a self-administered questionnaire to examine the participants’ perspectives regarding the impacts of ALD programs on their personal growth and professional practices (Bryman, 2016; Ries, 2019). This survey questionnaire was designed by a research team; to collect evidence on the validity and reliability of the designed instrument, a pilot study using a small subset of survey participants was implemented, with the final survey ultimately consisting of 28 questions delivered in two separate sections: demographics and impacts. As part of the target group included participants from Chinese universities, the survey questionnaire and interview questions were translated into Chinese. To ensure equivalent meanings of the instrument, the translated survey was back-translated by a native English speaker. The quantitative data was collected via the QualtricsTM research tool and was open from December 2020 and February 2021. An invitation email was disseminated to all participants who had participated in the program for more than 12 months, followed by two reminder emails spaced three weeks apart. Concerning the qualitative data, semi-structured interviews were conducted from February 2021 to May 2021. The interview questions were in parallel with the questions of the quantitative data collection; the interviews with the Chinese participants were conducted by researchers who are native speakers. Each interview lasted 34.40 min on average (min. 24 and max. 50 min).

Given the lack of empirical research on the mid-term impacts of such a leadership development program, our study attempted to reveal the outcomes of an international ALD program in the mid-term period. As for theoretical implication, our findings directly support the latest theoretical model (Wallace et al., 2021) concerning evaluation of a complex leadership development program under which leader development and leadership development are equally emphasized. Built on the impacts of the ALD program on personal growth and professional practices in the mid-term period, results in our study shed lights on how the leadership development intervention plays a role at an operational level. Concerning practical implication, the current study reduced the gap in the available literature that reports the lack of evidence-based leadership practices in academic settings. The study showed the importance and success of developing an international academic leadership development for both capacity building and professional network purposes. This model is much needed due to the rapidly changing environment of academic institutions worldwide (W. Liu, 2019). As the findings revealed the direct impacts of the program in different aspects including personal values and beliefs, behavior, and individuals’ network, we suggest program designers to develop a leadership development program in which personal enhancement should be embedded in a constructive and collegial learning environment. By doing so, the ultimate goals that promote leader development and leadership development could be achieved. With regard to policy implication, our study suggests that leadership development, along with sufficient resources, should be part of the policy priorities of academic institutions. It was evidenced that the international leadership program potentially benefits institutions in enhancing capacities for leaders and broadening networks and collaboration opportunities.

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