Program Overview

Principled Academic Leadership (PAL) is a professional development program tailored to develop the skills needed to survive and thrive while navigating the special challenges of the academic environment. Through highly interactive programs, current and emerging academic leaders consider and practice proven, continually practical tools that can be put into immediate use. Program participants gain concepts and skills needed for dealing with unpleasant and costly elements of interpersonal interactions, those that too often drive people out of leadership positions or that underlie dysfunction in academic units.

Participants build skills for making and implementing decisions required in leadership positions and the conversations that follow. By applying tools and skills to case studies, cohort members work together to develop solutions and approaches to many of the unique hurdles of the academic environment. The program presents strategies for building vibrant academic units and bully-proofing challenged units. Participants are encouraged to evaluate their own leadership needs and growth throughout the program and to reflect on their role and impact as an academic leader.

To learn more about PAL, click here.

The NCPRE Transforming Challenged Units (TCU) consortium offers support for institutions in dealing with units that are troubled or challenged in their ability to function effectively.  Consortium resources help identify the features that characterize flourishing academic units and the ways in which academic units can develop to overcome these difficulties. The TCU consortium offers, among other resources, early-warning indicators for identifying challenges before they become incapacitating, as well as specific, implementable approaches and solutions for addressing those challenges. 

Building on our experience in academic administration and leadership, NCPRE supports the Consortium in developing concepts, labels, tools, and approaches for dealing with challenges in a principled, pragmatic, and effective manner.

For more information about TCU, click here.

The Academic Leadership and Management Institute (ALMI) program presented by NCPRE is designed to support individual growth as an early career faculty member. Our starting point is that there are many kinds of academic leadership and that part of one's career trajectory is learning to exercise appropriate leadership in a variety of professional contexts.

NCPRE creates and shares resources to support better ethical and leadership practices in academic and other professional contexts. Leadership—and particularly ethical leadership—is central to creating a culture that establishes healthy and productive professional interactions. We equip participants with evidence-based tools to support intentional leadership development and institutional integrity.

To learn more about ALMI, click here.

In 2014, Nanyang Technological University and the University of Illinois established the NTU Leadership Academy (NLA) collaborative agreement for the purpose of developing and implementing a premier program in Asia for the leaders of global research universities of the future. 

The NTU Leadership Academy is designed for faculty of schools/colleges/institutions within NTU as preparation for further academic leadership positions. Participants develop skills for successful leadership, learning about the context and challenges of leading academic/research units.

The Academy is a year-long program for the entire cohort, with an initial two-day meeting in the fall, three additional half-day meetings and one additional two-day meeting in the spring. A collaboration of the National Center for Principled Leadership and Research Ethics and NTU, the NTU Leadership Academy will expose participants to thought leaders, real-world dilemmas and challenges and skills for succeeding in leading the complex organizations that are international research universities.

NCPRE is developing a ten-session, two-semester professional development program for early career faculty. Building on our existing 5-session ALMI program, and based on pilot feedback from participants in 2023 and 2024, our developing program covers topics such as:

• Understanding and Navigating the Academic Environment
• Values
• Becoming an Authority Figure
• Boundaries
• starting and sustaining a healthy research groups
• Communication
• Difficult Conversations
• Effective Communication Practices
• Mentoring
• Making the Most of Being Mentored
• Giving and Receiving Feedback
• Proactive Practices
• Negotiation
• Getting to Tenure
• Networking
• Mentoring Networks
• Team Science

New faculty members will meet as a cohort around once a month and work through case studies and video examples together. Our program is designed to help early career faculty foster cultures of excellence in their research groups while balancing their own career hurdles. We focus on foundational skills that discipline-focused training often leaves unexplored or underdeveloped, focusing on effective ways to work with other people in the unique academic environment in a way that is relentlessly practical and evidence-based. Our programs provide a way to learn about and practice skills to build the confidence it takes to manage difficult personalities, conversations, and situations.

If you are interested in a future cohort of this program, please email ethicsctr@illinois.edu for more information.