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.

KEYWORDS:

• Generation Z
• VUCA
• responsible leadership
• student voice

Research context

Aware of the pressures on students, lecturers and Higher Education leaders and Administrators both pre and post pandemic, the researchers set out to explore, using a Systematic Literature Review (SLR), how the academic literature was framing the experience of the actors most closely involved in Higher Education. The actors selected for the study are those known as Generation Z and their voice was sought to allow for the expression of their views as they navigate an uncertain and complex world (VUCA). Our ambition was to identify student learner expectations of leadership as Higher Education leaders operate within the relatively new context of what is being defined as ‘Responsible Leadership’. Data from the UK Higher Education Statistics Agency revealed that prior to the COVID pandemic, students in the 18–25-year age (i.e. Generation Z) made up more than 82% of the Higher Education (HE) student population in the UK (HESA 2019), a similar percentage were to be found in the Swedish Higher Education system.

In summary, our collective interest in HE and the need for responsible leadership (Foss and Gibson 2015) previous research in Student Voice (Browne and Miller 2018) our interest in the current student population (Generation Z) and the relevance of the term VUCA (Browne 2020) to the climate we inhabit, led with serendipity to what we considered to be a worthwhile research endeavour.

As research collaborators with one researcher working in the UK and the other in Sweden, we offer a transnational interest in the challenges faced by the university sector. Google Scholar was selected as the research tool on the basis that both academics, who were working from home at the time of the research, were able to access this source via their respective university’s online library. Justification for a Sweden and United Kingdom collaboration, we claim on the basis of similarities in university leadership structures, and a shared culture of privileging the Student Voice, as evident in the work of Grete Grunberg (Canning 2017; Cummings-Mansfield 2018). The themes for the research, as stated, grew out of our existing research interests and were ‘Generation Z’, ‘Student Voice’, VUCA (Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity, and Ambiguity) and Responsible Leadership. Definitions of these terms as provided in the academic literature are shown in Table 1 below.

Table 1. Working definitions.

Term	Our Working Definition
Generation Z	Born between 1995 and 2012 these students offer a unique set of attitudes, societal norms and behaviours. (Levin 2019)
Student Voice	The study of how student perception impact on the emotions, cognitions and behaviours of learners. (Browne and Miller 2018)
Responsible Leadership in Higher Education	A relational and ethical phenomenon, occurring in social processes of interaction with those who affect or are affected by leadership and have a stake or purpose and vision of the leadership relationship. (Maak and Pless 2006, 99)
VUCA	Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity and Ambiguity, a term first applied to describe the role of the American army during the Vietnam war. (Petrie 2019)

The study is located in Higher Education for a number of reasons: firstly, there is a growing interest in research In Higher Education (Stevenson, Havermann, and Perkins 2021), secondly this is the area in which the authors work and thirdly, the sector is known for a certain resistance to change, potentially making it vulnerable to crises in the context of the period in which we write and research (Barnett 2011).

Theoretical underpinnings

VUCA and Generation Z

The term VUCA is a generalist term locating our research interest in the context of the world we now inhabit. VUCA, as a term first used to describe the situation faced by troops in Vietnam, has been applied more recently to describe the problems faced in our turbulent world (Petrie 2019; Browne 2020). This might be represented by social unrest, the mass movement of displaced people, climate change, political unrest, financial instability, unemployment, mass layoffs, downsizings, environmental problems, corporate scandals and unethical misconduct in public office. Both, these terms, VUCA and Generation Z, as our areas of focus, describe the context impacting on Education Institutions (Browne 2020).

Additional challenges for the Higher Education sector can be seen in the United Nations Goals for a Sustainable Future. The ambition, articulated in the 17 interlinked goals, is a transformation of the world as we know it in terms of access to Higher Education, improved social mobility, greater understanding of the need for action on climate change and the end of world poverty as we know it (UNESCO 2018). Further unexpected challenges, in the recent Covid- 19 pandemic and other large-scale environmental and economic disasters place additional pressures on students and educators. Further evidence of the VUCA world is present in the crises in Ukraine, the destabilising of economies, the mass migration of displaced people and world food shortages all of which, again, impact on student ambition and student welfare (Korsakova 2022).

The body of students who have just left or are now part of the lecture halls of our HEIs have been labelled ‘Generation Z’. This cohort, born after 1995, are often referred to as digital natives (Dauksevicuite 2016). They are a generation born into a globally (internet) connected world. As learners, they are likely to be more equipped with technology than their teachers. This places another dimension to the experience of Generation Z with the need to involve this cohort more in the design of the education process (Browne and Miller 2018). This generation is already digital native, they are fast decision makers and highly connected (Dauksevicuite 2016) with high expectations of their educational experience.

Responsible leadership

The term ‘Responsible Leadership’ as a theme advances the existing definitions of leadership and takes into account the way leaders use their power. The term Responsible Leadership gives articulation to the influencing power of leaders and identifies their role as improvers of life chances rather than contributors to the destruction of the environment, of individual ambitions, organisations, economies, and societies (Foss and Gibson 2015; Browne 2020) Responsible Leadership, as an emerging focus is distinct from other perspectives of leadership (e.g. transactional/transformational or ethical) as it is anchored in the assumption that leaders must balance different (and potentially conflicting) sets of interests and move towards addressing the many challenges we currently face.

As academics listen more to the views expressed by Generation Z it has become apparent that new approaches to leadership are required in the Higher Education context (Vorley and Nelles 2009). Teachers at all levels in the higher education system face a new generation of youth with high demands for immediate action. This new generation will not wait patiently for the changes required to make study relevant in a complex world. The metaphor of ‘entrepreneurial architecture’ has been used to denote the collection of five internal factors (structures, systems, leadership, strategies and culture) that interact to shape the need for change at the university level (Vorley and Nelles 2008, 2009; Foss and Gibson 2015). In focusing on the dimension of responsible leadership (De Jong and Reisen 2021; Muff, Liechti, and Dyllick 2020; Waldman and Galvien 2011) we support the views of Maak and Pless (2006, 99) and reiterate our definition of responsible leadership as a relational and ethical phenomenon, occurring in social processes of interaction with those who affect or are affected by leadership and have a stake or purpose and vision of the leadership relationship.

The requirement for leaders to apply responsible and ethical behaviour has received attention in the research literature over a long period of time (Shi and Ye 2016; Pfeffer 2015). In the last century Stogdill (1950) highlighted leadership as one of the world’s oldest concerns, as exemplified by Homer’s book the Iliad and the Greek heroes. According to Stogdill (1950, 3) leadership can be considered as ‘the process (act) of influencing the activities of an organized group in its efforts toward goal setting and goal achievement’. The word ‘influence’ has in fact become part of many definitions of leadership, thus showing that leadership is a relational process in which one part exerts some kind of inducement over another. A useful definition is that of Yukl’s (2006), who sees leadership as a process in which certain individuals understand and influence what needs to be done and how to do it, as well as facilitate individual and collective efforts to accomplish shared objectives. It is in the issue of power and action that we find the connectivity with our fourth theme, namely ‘student voice’.

Student voice

Another area of focus, namely that of student voice, might be described as a movement of interest following what the Higher Education Academy in the UK identify as ‘student experience’. This area explores the totality of a student’s interaction with the institution (Temple et al. 2014, 3) and gives credence to views expressed by students through a number of organised and accepted routes.

One of the most prominent advocates in the past century of student voice and empowerment was Paulo Freire. Freire (1970) rejected the commonplace practice of what he called the banking concept of education where teachers impart knowledge to receiving participants placing learners in a powerless and oppressed position. Freire offers strong criticism to the oppression of academic domination and imposed curricula, proposing that students should be given a voice to participate in real and meaningful ways. The awakening of the individual voice in the lecture hall then leads to liberation, empowerment, and change (1970, 14). Instead of becoming complicit to student oppression by utilising traditional-yet misguided lecture practices, Freire suggested that lecturers need to employ practical strategies to elicit collective inquiry, creativity and a closer connection with the real world as experienced and understood by the student body. Freire argues that ‘knowledge emerges only through invention and re-invention, through the restless impatient, continuing, hopeful inquiry human beings pursue in the world, with the world, and with each other’ (1970, 72).

The student voice movement is given focus here as a response to a changing university environment brought about by the introduction of tuition fees, increased competition between institutions and a more demanding visa regime for international students. Such changes are part of what has been described as the marketisation and massification of higher education, with power shifts apparent, as the student becomes the customer rather than the privileged recipient of an elite experience (Ball 1993; Nixon, Scullion, and Hearn 2018; Tomlinson 2017; Naidoo, Taylor, and Bovill 2018). The management of the student experience and interest in the student voice, in institutional terms, is at the heart of the university responses to a new, radically uncertain, environment. Perceived as fostering democracy in educational institutions, approaches which encourage student voice are being promoted as supporting greater social equalities and strengthening student’s commitment to their learning (Browne and Miller 2018).

Methodology

SLRs aim at identifying, critically evaluating and integrating the findings of all relevant studies related to the research question to create a systematic review of the currently available literature (Hart 1998). A literature review is developed to be transparent and open in terms of process and procedure, comprehensible and replicable (Denyer and Tranfield 2009). Previous SLRs that have inspired our methodology are the following studies: Ström, Olsen, and Foss (2020), Thapa, Iakovleva, and Foss (2019), Longva and Foss (2018), Kamovich and Foss 2017) and Henry and Foss (2015; Henry, Foss, and Ahl 2016). The main message from these studies is that the objective of the SLR can be framed in various ways and with different levels of ambition (explorative, descriptive and confirmative). Further, the analytical length and depth of the field of interest also impacts the ambitions of the SLRs extensiveness. Some of the above-mentioned studies were conducted on well-known research themes in disciplines with a long tradition (Henry and Foss 2015; Henry, Foss, and Ahl 2016; Foss and Krantz 2022). Others were in emerging fields (Ström, Olsen, and Foss 2020; Thapa, Iakovleva, and Foss 2019; Longva and Foss 2018).

Based on the above, we consider our SLR to categorise as an emerging field of research. Research on the Z generation is in its infancy and HEIs’ strategies for developing responsible leadership skills for this generation is a relative unexplored area. Consequently, our methodological approach is one of induction and interpretation as part of the meta-ethnographic paradigm. The aim is to understand the current climate in Higher Education in relation to global challenges with a focus on the leadership of change to achieve those changes as perceived to be required by the academic study of the terms VUCA, Higher Education, Student Voice and Responsible Leadership. Justification for the selection of these four themes, as already stated, sits with our joint areas of research interest and a desire to collaborate (Foss and Browne 2021).

A search using Google Scholar was carried out on four key themes pertinent to our interest. The four themes, namely: Generation Z and education, Student Voice, Responsible Leadership and VUCA were searched using a metric which included articles written in the last 5 years (2017–2021) presenting a generic focus. In explanation of what might be critiqued as a limited time period of only four years (2017–2021) we cite the lack of research in education exploring the term VUCA prior to 2017, the newly immerging application of the term ‘Responsible Leadership’ which first appeared in the literature in 2015, and research focused on Generation Z which first reached publication in 2016.

Texts were excluded if, in their title, they contained specific reference to subject discipline, teaching method, school rather than higher education, learner ability or any other locator which gave the text a specificity of subject rather than the generality sought here. Our ambition was to achieve summarised results indicating the leading trends and areas of focus within our fields of interest and to find answers to our research question. Further, the ambition was to gather evidence of impact in the research arena to provide an underpinning for future research in these areas. In searching for themes and perspectives in the available research, we hoped to discover evidence of an integration of ideas, developing trends and/or helpful identifiers that might offer support and collaboration for future research endeavours.

Our approach is potentially open to criticism as researchers proficient in the use of SLRs advocate a search method which starts with a focus on ‘quality journals’, that is those with a high-rated index as allocated according to the number of citations received (Cruzes and Dyba 2011). In the interests of inclusion and access, our focus was on providing a thematic study of the most recent research rather than that considered to be highly impactful. Consequently, we focused on the full range of peer reviewed articles adopting the international focus as applied by our search tool – google scholar. This approach proved fruitful as our search offered access to a range of different and relatively new journals, some of which were written by students. Specifically, we reference here the Journal of Student Engagement in Higher Education which is written by academics and students, working collaboratively and alone. The inclusion of articles from the student body we see as appropriate and within the spirit of student empowerment and student voice, one of the key themes that underpin this research endeavour.

The data extraction method is shown below in Table 2 and follows that recommended by Cruzes and Dyba (2011) when carrying out research that involves a SLR. Articles based in the school sector were excluded as were those of a discipline-specific nature. There were, for example, a large number of articles that focused on Generation Z and the use of technology, of responsible leadership but only in the sustainable development field and VUCA in respect of organisational and structural challenges from a business perspective, rather than one which offered a generic perspective. Articles with a specific focus were excluded. Articles that spoke to VUCA we filtered to give focus to learners from Generation Z who were progressing through the HE sector. The sifting process for the focus on Responsible Leadership was located in Higher Education as the area of interest but here, for research purposes, we selected articles that showed a concern for learners in terms of their expectations and needs. Table 2 below gives visual representation to the systematic approach taken to data analysis.

Table 2. Extraction process (Template advocated by Cruzes and Dyba 2011).

Google Search	Sifting and sorting	Data collection
Key words: Generation Z Student Experience VUCA Leading change	Key focus: Peer reviewed articles Published between 2017 and 2021 Generic not subject specific Located in the field of Higher Education	Key findings: Emerging themes Research findings Data limitations Emerging synergies Research Findings Recommendations

Research outputs: numeric data

The first stage of the data collection process identified a total of 818 articles. The largest number were focused on the term Student Voice, followed by Generation Z, then Responsible Leadership. The lowest number of ‘hits’ located in the term VUCA. This is to be expected as the term has only recently been applied to the study of Higher Education. Following an extensive period of reading, based on a review of key words, article abstracts and key findings, the number of articles found to meet the research criteria were considerable reduced to 49 in total. Table 3 below illustrates this point.

Table 3. Outcomes from the data collection.

Term	Working Definition	Number in the Original word search	Number of Articles meeting the selection criteria
Generation Z	Born between 1995 and 2012 these students offer a unique set of attitudes, societal norms and behaviours (Levin 2019).	250	12
Student Voice	The study of how student perception impacts on the emotions, cognitions and behaviours of learners (Browne and Miller 2018).	278	10
Responsible Leadership in Higher Education	A relational and ethical phenomenon, occurs in social processes of interaction with those who affect or are affected by leadership and have a stake or purpose and vision of the leadership relationship (Maak and Pless 2006).	167	19
VUCA	Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity and Ambiguity, a term first applied to describe the role of the American army during the Vietnam war (Petrie 2019).	123	7

To give more explanation as to the reduction process, our findings were as follows:

1. Although we found 250 articles from the search using ‘Generation Z’ a large number of these located in the school sector rather than in higher education with our final number of suitable articles reduced to only 12

2. Similar outcomes immerged when the term ‘Student Voice’ became the primary research term. Again, many articles located in the school or further education sector with also approximately 127 from the initial total located in a subject specific discipline such as computer technology, geography, business and art-related subjects. This reduced our final number of articles, matching our criteria to only 10.

3. In the area of ‘Responsible Leadership’ where 167 articles were initially identified, the final number meeting ‘the cut’ were only 19 with most articles located firmly in the business subject discipline and in industry rather than in the higher education sector.

4. The final term ‘VUCA’ produced 123 searches with a large number linked to subject specificity particularly the world of business. The articles that met our criteria were reduced here to 7.

Once the sifting process had taken place the results showed the majority of articles located in the area of student voice and the smallest number in the area of VUCA. As previously stated, this is not surprising since the application of the term VUCA is a relatively new phenomena in the field of Higher Education.

Focus on responsible leadership is heartening and reveals, it would suggest, concern among the academic community about the appropriate way in which to respond to the current situation of crises. If we had widened our search in terms of time (that is wider than the parameter of 2017–2021 to include an earlier time period), then the largest number of research articles to be found would, we suggest, have been in the area of student voice. The interest in student voice has been considerable (Nixon et al. 2018; Tomlinson 2017; Browne and Miller 2018)

An observation arising from the research is that interest in writing about student voice, as a topical subject, appears to have waned somewhat. Our SLR revealed a reduced number of research articles from 2019 onwards with a subtle shift in emphasis to the term ‘student engagement’. We understand that the student voice has become mainstreamed as part of the structural activities of our universities but would urge against complacency (Blair 2018). The ‘student voice’ agenda cannot be addressed, in our opinion, through the use of token student surveys. University leaders will pay a heavy price if they do not continue to explore varying ways in which to talk to their learners (Temple et al. 2019).

Qualitative data

A detailed summary of the findings following the collection of qualitative data pertinent to the four themes of interest can be found in the appendix for this article (see Appendix). A summary of this data is presented here selection of the data is presented here using our research themes. It needs to be noted that, as might be expected, there were elements of overlapping data in the four themes and a much stronger voice of discontent in the literature written during and post pandemic.

Generation Z

Our survey of the current literature pertinent to the theme Generation Z highlighted student concerns about social justice, inclusivity and climate change (Chiltranshi 2021; Hart 2021). Economic pressures, the impact of student loans, debt, future employment concerns and value for money appeared to focus strongly.

Recently published research identified a range of grievances felt by students most impacted by the pandemic. Hart (2021) highlighted the different type of university existence as experienced by the cohort who entered university in September 2020. This group expressed anger at university closures and disappointment in the university response to COVID. This group of Generation Z reportedly felt cheated and let down by the sector. It was evident in the literature that Higher Education had not been an inspirational, worthwhile and academically challenging experience for this student cohort who reportedly felt let down by Higher Education and were openly questioning its role and purpose.

Responsible leadership

A number of articles contained clear messages for the HE sector (Benjamin, Baran, and Woznyj 2021; Hart 2021). Our review of the literature identified the need for HE leaders to understand the lives and lived experiences of students to facilitate better understandings of how experience, conscious and unconscious, is organised, interpreted and reshaped throughout the life cycle (Browne and Miller 2018). Further, there is a need for a new leadership architecture that embraces the principles of Responsible Leadership and lives this ideology in all that it does (Dunbar-Morris, Barlow, and Layer 2019; LeBlanc 2018).

Student voice

Our research revealed a number of articles which described a cohort of students who were academically adrift, articulating the need for more support and a stronger social network of connectivity. The literature post pandemic was even more clear on this point. Generation Z, post pandemic felt no sense of belonging, their expectations and hopes had not materialised. These students felt no pride in university membership and expressed the need for sustained support (Dunbar-Morris 2021). Other writers highlighted the challenges ahead (Dunbar-Morris 2021; Cruellar, Garcia, and Saichaie 2021) as students affected by the pandemic were questioning the purpose of higher education in a fragile world. Research by Cruellar, Garcia, and Saichaie (2021) explored student voice and identified the complexity of questions that students are posing as they grapple with trying to understand the multiple purposes of Higher Education. Students were aware of the rhetoric from their parents and school teachers about the benefit of Higher Education but could not align this narrative with their world experience which they saw as thwart with challenges and complexity.

VUCA

A range of articles identified pressure on universities to take into account the needs of all stakeholders as well as having concern for issues of environmentally secure and sustainable futures (Temple et al. 2019; Benjamin, Baran, and Woznyj 2021). On this theme, a clear message was apparent, identifying the requirement for academics to have training in how to meet the needs of the Generation Z learners. They perceive themselves as a different type of student capable to expressing their feelings of marginalisation, exclusion, alienation and discrimination and not prepared to accept some of the ‘old ways ‘of operating. Here we identified a student critique of the racial, gendered and class-based constraints they perceive as being part of university life. This places a requirement on universities leaders to examine the organisational structures and cultural traditions in what has been described as a crisis in hegemony, legitimacy and identity in our Higher Education Institutions (Hart 2021). Le Blanc develops this point by identifying bias in our universities towards hierarchy, rigid department/disciplinary/territorial structures, and the slow pace of change. Further, he maintains that HEIs give more attention to process than to outcomes and do not lend themselves to agility and change (LeBlanc 2018).

The research revealed that the traditional role and position of the university is being challenged with the value of a university education being questioned (Naidoo, Taylor, and Bovill 2018). Students perceived university experience to be loose and unstructured, difficult to define, the purpose of which they felt was difficult to assess (Iorgulescu 2016; Merrill 2020). The research indicates that change is not an option. Universities need to respond to the social justice agendas (Hart 2021) whilst also identifying issues of sustainability and environmental chaos. The sector needs to demonstrate a commitment to change in its actions and operations. The articles in this research theme identified a loss of purpose for Higher Education, as mentioned in the other thematic reviews. There was an expectation that University leadership found a balance between the social justice agenda and the expectations of corporate enterprise (Hirsch and Weber 2021). The role played by machine intelligence and technology in transforming almost every field of human endeavour against a backdrop of climate change, social and political turmoil, and enormous and growing wealth inequity was given detailed focus (LeBlanc 2018: Newman 2019).

Next steps

With the ambition of learning more about the experience and concerns of our student cohorts the researchers are currently carrying out focus group research sessions with students adopting the methodology of the card sorts as used by Browne and Miller (2018). The card sort statements in the next stage of our research consist of quotations taken directly from the research statements identified here and references in Appendix of this article. In moving to the next stage of our research we intend to deepen our understanding of what it is to be a student today and strengthen the advice we can offer Higher Education Leaders as they face unprecedented challenges.

Summary and reflections

There is no doubting the unprecedented challenges faced by all stakeholders participating in or providing education today. Our focus on Generation Z, through a SLR has revealed the extent of the challenges facing this particular cohort of learners. Search of the term VUCA provided a resource and supply of articles, articulating clearly the challenges ahead. What was highlighted specifically were the tensions present in our university system where past ideologies no longer hold true, where academic qualification may no longer result in greater financial outcomes and where definitions of success have been rewritten. LeBlanc (2018) focuses on university structures and processes to warn that the pace of change in the sector is too slow.

Early in this article reference was made to this issue of climate change and indeed, our searches revealed evidence in the academic literature, of a clear focus on this topic. We found multiple recommendations for HEIs to focus on the leadership of ethical change specifically in the area of climate change, with ideas proposed such as a reform of all courses to include a focus on climate change in modular content on all degree programmes (Hirsh-Webber 2021; LeBlanc 2018; Nikonenko 2019; www.media_814664_smxx_1 accessed 21 November 2021).

In terms of the messages for university leaders it is clear that complacency is not an option. Generation Z have a voice and are prepared to use it. They are expecting a different cultural experience today than that offered to their parents. They want more from the university courses for which they registered. They expect an awareness by university faculty of the fragility of this world and the ability to provide them with answers. They want their qualifications to be worthwhile and to help them make a difference. Generation Z have a passion, not seen in the student body for a number of years, they are activists, they are enraged, they want answers and they want change. There is an expectation that university leadership will lead by example, that it will be ethical, that it will be concerned and that it will give focus to the things that matter to protect our fragile world (Foss and Browne 2021).

The student voice movement, advocated initially as part of the democratisation of education, has come of age. Students have a voice in a number of arenas. As mentioned, they are digitally connected and digitally savvy. They have the power to connect people, to connect ideas and make a change. What we may find is that Generation Z, as the educated elite of the future, will have the ability and commitment to change the world. The question that remains, however, is what will our universities look like when they have changed? In giving power and voice to the student body will the university sector lead in the movement to create a safe and secure world? Will the 21st century university be known as the organisation that models new approaches to responsible leadership, or will the university sector lose its relevance and thereby be sent to the annuls of history because it has become irrelevant, resistant to change and unable to provide the answers we so desperately need to save our world.

Recommendations

A new breed of students, known as Generation Z, is expecting a university sector that is responsive to change and able to support learner enthusiasm for new answers to our existing problems. This student body has to be heard. They feel empowered and are confident in what they have to say. In response, the University sector has to be agile and awake, recent and relevant, ethical and responsible in its organisational structure and in the messages it propagates. Degree programmes need to address the issues faced whilst also offering solutions. Our recommendation, resultant from this research based on the application of a SLR, is that the university sector takes a critical review of all that it does.

Once this review has been completed with a thoroughness, an integrity and openness, it needs to respond swiftly, listen to its learners and act to meet the needs of a body of students, aka Generation Z, who are inhabiting the VUCA world with challenges of an enormity not previously thought possible. Based on this SLR our first recommendation is that HEIs make use of the increasingly widespread research on student engagement (Aparicio, Iturralde, and Maseda 2021). Further, in order to develop first-hand knowledge on how Generation Z will make its mark on the world the HE sector must identify with the mantra of responsible leadership in all its activities and engagements. This engagement is crucial if HEIs are to stay relevant as education institution. Foss and Browne (2021) argue that HEIs have a clear role for the future in giving momentum to the changes that are required to working collaboratively with Z generation. HEIs need to work with this generation of students to give them the language and tools to shape a new agenda for the world. This implies ownership to the sustainability agenda, hands on experience to solve practical problems, working in teams with stakeholders and involving research students far more in disseminating cutting-edge research that transforms society. Simply put HEIs need to carve out a clear future for themselves, to be the lead thinkers they claim to be and work collaborative with the next generation to set our world on a better path.

Finally, we call for leaders in out HEIs to develop a pedagogy and an infrastructure to meet the new generation of students and their learning needs. HEIs need to work closely with community stakeholders in order to reflect joint societal needs for change. HEI leadership needs to ‘walk the talk’. The Z generation of students will not be charmed easily and are looking at higher education to show them the way. If our universities cannot accept and meet the challenges as expressed by Generation Z then we have to ask, what future is there for a sector that is resistant to change and locked into dated ways of operation?

Following this research, we see a strong need for there to be a culture of partnership between staff and students in the HE sector. In adopting this partnership approach, we see a potential for change in the culture and relationships between students, academics and their institution so that, together, Generation Z and those who lead our HE Institutions can respond quickly and with impact, to our VUCA world.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Liz Browne

Liz Browne is Professor of Education at Oxford Brookes University and head of the Centre for Education Consultancy and Development.

Lene Foss

Lene Foss is Professor of Education at Jönköping Univeristy in Sweden and a visiting professor at UiT The Artic University of Norway.

Appendix.

Emerging research evidence

Table

Term	Our Working Definition	Selected No. of articles	Emerging Themes and Lessons for HE
Generation Z	Born between 1995 and 2012 these students offer a unique set of attitudes, societal norms and behaviours (Levin 2019)	12	Need for HEIs to work with Generation Z’s interest in social justice issues. HEIs to produce critical citizens for an inclusive society (Chiltranshi 2021) HEIs need to responsive to the voice and expectations of this group of learners Economic tensions are leading Gen. Z to challenge the role of the university sector (Iogulescu 2018; Fletcher 2018) The university experience of Gen Z is very different than any experienced before, they feel cheated and let down as a result of university closures (Hart 2021)
Student Experience	The study of how student perception impacts on the emotions, cognitions and behaviours of learners (Browne and Miller 2018)	10	More account to be given to understanding the lives and lived experiences of students to facilitate better understandings of how experience, conscious and unconscious, is organised, interpreted and reshaped throughout the life cycle (Browne and Miller 2018)Generation Z students are academically adrift, particularly post pandemic and there is a need to create an atmosphere of sustained support and sustained excellence in times of change (Cummings-Mansfield 2018; Thiel 2018)University leaders have a task ahead of them post pandemic to win the hearts and minds of their students (Dunbar-Morris 2021; Naidoo, Taylor, and Bovill 2018) Students note a strong emphasis on the private goals of higher education from society and parents. However, students’ narratives reflect how they grapple with multiple purposes (Cruella et al. 2021; Bishop 2018).
Responsible Leadership in Higher Education	A relational and ethical phenomenon, occurs in social processes of interaction with those who affect or are affected by leadership and have a stake or purpose and vision of the leadership relationship (Maak and Pless 2006)	19	There is a call for an approach to leadership which takes into account the needs of all stakeholders as well as having concern for issues of environmentally secure and sustainable futures (Benjamin 2021; Hirsch and Weber 2021)Training is required for academics on meeting the needs of this new type of learnerAcademics need to engage in new ways with their learnersAcademics need to address specific issues of marginalisation, exclusion, alienation as experienced by Generation Z (Aparicio, Iturralde, and Maseda 2021; Inbavanan 2018; Thapa, Iakovleva, and Foss 2019) Universities need to be aware of the racial, gendered and class- based constraints that are part of university life Universities need to examine the organisational structures and cultural traditions in what has been described as a crisis in hegemony, legitimacy and identity.Universities need to respond to the social justice agendas (Hart 2021)Universities should examine issues of sustainability and environmental chaos.Need for a new leadership architecture higher education is not suited to our world. Its bias towards hierarchy, rigid department/disciplinary/territorial structures, and slow pace of change, with which comes more attention to process than to outcomes in many instances, do not lend themselves to agility and change (LeBlanc 2018)Mainstreaming Climate Change Education (CCE) across all learning and operational activities will enable Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) to better serve their core purpose of preparing learners or their roles in work and wider society, now and in the future. Student and employer demand for climate change education is growing, not just in specialist subjects but across all degree pathways.The attitudes, mindsets, values and behaviours that graduates need to engage with climate change include the ability to deal with complexity, work collaboratively across sectors and disciplines and address challenging ethical questions.The complexity of the climate crisis means all disciplines have a role to play in delivering education for the net-zero transition. Embedding interdisciplinarity is crucial to ensuring that our response to climate change makes use of all of the expertise HEIs have to offer and promotes knowledge exchange and integration for students and staff.Student-centred CCE, including peer-to-peer learning, is a powerful tool for facilitating an inclusive and empowering learning experience, and developing graduates as change agents for the climate and ecological crisis.HEIs should develop learning outcomes for CCE that include understanding the scale, urgency, causes, consequences and solutions of climate change; how social norms and practices are driving the climate crisis; and the ability to identify routes to direct involvement in solutions via every discipline.Pedagogical approaches to teaching CCE should enable learners to engage with, and respond to, climate change as a “real-world” problem, such as through experiential learning.Further recommendations for the HEI sector include developing a strategy for aligning CCE teaching provision with governance structures; partnering with industry, government and third sector organisations to enable context-specific CCE; and working with trade unions and accreditation bodies to enable curriculum reform (UK COP26 pap
VUCA	Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity and Ambiguity, a term first applied to describe the role of the American army during the Vietnam war (Petrie 2019)	7	The traditional role and position of the university is being challenged with the value of a university education being questioned (Naidoo, Taylor, and Bovill 2018). The university experience has become loose and unstructured, difficult to define, the purpose of which is difficult to assess (Iorgulescu 2016; Merrill 2020) Universities have lost their direction and purpose University leadership needs to find a balance between the social justice agenda and the expectations of corporate enterprise (Hirsh-Webber 2021) machine intelligence and technology are transforming almost every field of human endeavour–all against a backdrop of climate change, social and political turmoil, and enormous and growing wealth inequity (LeBlanc 2018; Newman 2019) There is a specific need for staff development for university staff to grapple with the challenges they face (Nikonenko 2019)