Melbourne Aspiring Leaders and Managers Program

The Melbourne Aspiring Leaders and Managers (MALM) program is free for professional and academic staff at the University who are new to managing teams or academic units and seek to build their leadership skills. Designed for new managers to develop their skills, knowledge and capacities to lead and manage effectively. Running several cohorts a year, the program covers topics such as developing yourself and others and understanding the HE landscape.

A unique feature of MALM that has been highly prized by previous participants is its delivery to mixed cohorts made up of both professional and academic staff. Through a focus on developing peer networks across the university, participants are offered a richer and fuller understanding of the University environment, particularly on issues around leadership and management. The program is distinctive from other leadership programs as it links individual and team practices to considerations of the wider operation context of universities.

Participants have the opportunity to join a series of practice-based workshop alongside undertaking self-paced online learning and guided discussions. Workshops throughout the program include a variety of guest academic and professional staff senior leaders. The program is designed to supplement and link to other training offered by the University of Melbourne.

The study program was developed by practitioners in the higher education sector alongside colleagues at the University of Melbourne. The online resources and practice-based workshops are grounded in a variety of academic management literature, as well as research from sociology, political science and economics.

The Melbourne Aspiring Leaders and Managers program runs several cohorts a year and covers the following topics.

• Managing and Developing Yourself: focusing on leading and managing the self, developing a critical reflective practice and practical skills such as time-management, and approaches to work planning and prioritisation.
• Managing and Developing Others: addressing interpersonal skills and intelligence, the specifics of transitioning to a management role; managing workplace relationships and developing others. This module includes discussions around diversity, inclusion, as well as legal obligations and practice based exercises for having one-to-one and difficult conversations.
• Managing and Developing ‘the Enterprise’: situates business development within the higher education sector and includes thinking and working across universities, including a focus on setting and executing strategy and change management processes.
• Understanding the Tertiary Education Landscape: covering the history and evolution of higher education policy processes and outcomes, and the increasing importance of leadership and management considerations for policy settings, institutional governance, funding, internationalisation, diversity, and globalisation.