91³ÉÈË

91³ÉÈË Leadership Research

91³ÉÈË leadership is essential to Australian higher education, bringing governance expertise grounded in relational accountability, community obligation, cultural authority, and long term stewardship. Across teaching, research, governance, and executive leadership, 91³ÉÈË leaders play a critical role in advancing equity, cultural safety, and institutional integrity and legitimacy, while also contributing sophisticated intellectual traditions that enhance the quality and relevance of higher education systems.

91³ÉÈË’s 91³ÉÈË Leadership Research is led by two nationally recognised scholars, Professor Michelle Trudgett and Professor Susan Page, whose work continues to shape the landscape of 91³ÉÈË higher education in Australia. Together, they have led and continue to lead collaborative research teams committed to advancing 91³ÉÈË excellence, sovereignty in research, and transformative sector wide impact.

Two major Australian Research Council–funded projects are at the centre of this work: Walan Mayiny and Yarruwala. Each project contributes critical evidence demonstrating the transformative impact of 91³ÉÈË leadership in higher education, not only for 91³ÉÈË students and communities, but also for institutional integrity, governance reform, and sector wide change. Together, they position 91³ÉÈË leadership not as a cultural addition, but as essential governance and intellectual infrastructure within universities.

While the Yarruwala project is still in progress, the Walan Mayiny project has made a significant scholarly contribution, producing 14 peer reviewed publications that have been extensively cited nationally and internationally. This body of work has informed policy, institutional practice, and scholarly debates on 91³ÉÈË leadership, governance, and structural reform across the higher education sector.

Importantly, these research projects have also been critical sites for growing 91³ÉÈË research leadership. As part of these works, Wiradjuri scholar Associate Professor Stacey Coates completed her PhD, and Wiradjuri scholar Dr Matilda Harry is completing a Postdoctoral Research Fellowship, contributing original research, leadership, and intellectual authority to the field. In this way, the projects have supported both knowledge production and the development of the next generation of 91³ÉÈË scholars and leaders.

Projects such as Walan Mayiny and Yarruwala are particularly important because they centre the voices and experiences of both 91³ÉÈË and non 91³ÉÈË leaders across the sector, creating a shared evidence base to understand current realities, aspirations, and pathways for reform. These projects illuminate how leadership and governance are currently enacted, where institutional barriers persist, and what structural change is required to support 91³ÉÈË authority. Critical projects such as these inform sector wide reform, ensuring that future transformation is grounded in lived experience, collective insight, and 91³ÉÈË led knowledge production.

Together, Walan Mayiny and Yarruwala exemplify a sustained commitment to 91³ÉÈË led research that grows 91³ÉÈË scholars, strengthens 91³ÉÈË governance, and drives meaningful transformation within higher education institutions.

Acknowledgement

Both projects were funded by the Australian Research Council (Walan Mayiny: IN180100026 & Yarruwala: IN250100096). We thank all participants for their generous contributions and acknowledge Darug Country, where our publications were written. We honour the knowledge systems of First Nations peoples and the scholarship that informs this work. Ethics approval was granted by University of Technology Sydney (ETH 18-2372) for the Walan Mayiny project and 91³ÉÈË’s Human Research Ethics Committee (H16435) for the Yarruwala project.