How does the discourse of published research record the experience of Generation Z as students in the Higher Education sector?

Abstract

Based on the shared interest of two academics with leadership responsibilities in the UK and Sweden our ambition was to better understand student learner expectations of leadership as Higher Education leaders operate within the relatively new context of what is being defined as ‘Responsible Leadership’. A search using Google Scholar, to give international reach, was carried out in late 2020 on four key themes pertinent to our research endeavour. The four themes, namely: Generation Z in Higher Education, Student Voice, Responsible Leadership and VUCA (Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity and Ambiguity) were searched using a metric which included articles presenting with a generic focus and written in the last 5 years (2017–2021). Texts were excluded if, in the abstract, they contained specific reference to subject discipline, teaching method, learner ability or any other locator which gave the text a specificity of subject rather than the generality sought here. In applying a Systematic Literature Review (SLR) methodology the ambition was to achieve summarised results to identify the debate and emerging evidence concerning our fields of interest. The research findings reveal challenging times ahead for the university sector with questions emerging about the function and purpose of Higher Education.