Opportunities and dilemmas for higher education institutions posed by the introduction of the NPQH

The introduction of the National Professional Qualification for Headship (NPQH) has created both "opportunities and dilemmas" (Bolam 1997, p 278) for the providers of taught higher degrees in educational management. Over a number of years a significant percentage of Universities and Colleges have been developing higher degree programmes designed to address the management development needs of senior managers in schools. These degree programmes have sought to address the increasing demands on headteachers and others in senior roles in schools and have a strong basis in the growing research on school effectiveness and improvement which has profoundly affected attitudes to the ways in which schools are managed. There has, to date, been no persuasive "map" drawn up of the wide variety of such degree programmes and, what is more, little consideration seems to have been given to the effects which the effective arrogation of a large part of management development by a governmental organisation might have on these courses. This study attempts, firstly, to draw up such a "map" of taught higher degree programmes in education management in higher education institutions in England and Wales and, secondly, to define, explore and analyse some of the issues subsumed within the above noted "opportunities and dilemmas" through a series of research interviews with course leaders/ tutors on taught Masters degree programmes in education management.