The leadership role of campus managers to improve student achievement in colleges

Abstract

This study sought to identify successful leadership roles in campus managers and to better understand how these leadership roles and practices can improve student achievement in Further Education and Training (FET) colleges in South Africa. Improving the quality of FET colleges and student achievement is essential if these colleges are to meet the demands of skilling the youth for employment. The campus manager of an FET college is accountable for the quality of teaching and learning and consequently, student achievement. Using quantitative research, questionnaires were sent to the academic staff of all FET colleges in Mpumalanga. The study identified, using the multiple regression model, the most important predictors in student achievement in the National Certificate Vocational (NCV) examination in FET colleges. The results of the research also identified the leadership roles that are utilized by campus managers of high-achieving college campuses and conversely, also identified those areas that must be improved on for campus managers from poor performing college campuses. Replicating the leadership roles of campus managers of high performing colleges has the potential to impact on improving student achievement in FET colleges in South Africa.