Call for proposals will open soon.
Magna Publications and Academic Leader will soon invite proposals for 60-minute concurrent sessions for the 2026 Leadership in Higher Education Conference.
The Leadership in Higher Education Conference provides an opportunity for educational leaders to learn innovative strategies, trends, and best practices for effective management from nationally recognized experts and to network with like-minded peers from a wide range of academic institutions. Our plenary presentations, concurrent interactive workshop sessions, and networking opportunities foster a climate of learning and collaboration.
We will be looking for engaging and informative proposals on academic and administrative leadership in higher education. Conference sessions provide attendees with real-world solutions grounded in sound academic research and practice.
60-minute concurrent sessions provide a highly focused how-to demonstration on a specific best practice or approach to leadership topics based on the tracks below. Submissions should focus on research-based, actionable strategies; case studies are permitted but should focus on lessons that are applicable to other institutions.
Deadline for Submissions
March 9, 2026
Confirmation of accepted proposals will be sent by April 13, 2026.
Conference Tracks
Leadership & Professional Development
Submissions to this track should focus on building and refining innovative approaches to higher-education leadership in support of student success; building faculty collaboration; addressing conflict resolution; promoting innovation through research; fostering needed curricular change; mentoring faculty; establishing equitable promotion and tenure processes; and building a positive working and learning environment. Submissions to this track can also address new trends or developments in higher education. Please designate if your session is for new or mid-career leaders.
Student Retention & Success
Student success is a gauge of institutional success, and—as such—for accrediting agencies, the public, contributing alumni, and students and their families, it is an indicator of the institution’s overall product. Presentations in this track will focus on overcoming challenges to retention, such as escalating costs, declining state support, and a shrinking student population; creating successful retention strategies through student-focused efforts in admissions, financial aid, academic advising, course management, or residential living; and promoting student success by supporting high-risk students, adult learners, academic assistance, health and wellness counseling, and more.
Diversity, Equity & Inclusion
Higher education administrators are working to implement holistic programs to accommodate today’s diverse students, faculty, and staff. This track will allow higher-education professionals to present and share the ways they are responding to campus issues, such as structural diversity, change management, transformation of institutional culture, and diversity skills and competency training programs; and student needs, such as housing and food insecurities, mental health concerns, neurodiversity, sexual identity, disabilities, immigration concerns, and racism. Presentations may also address how institutions are supporting diverse staff and faculty or making institutions places that can retain diverse employees.
Institutional Culture & Climate
The culture of a university consists of the set of values that helps the university's faculty, staff, students, and administrators understand which actions are considered acceptable and which actions are considered unacceptable. Climate looks at the present moment: what is the atmosphere like for members of the faculty, staff, students, and administrators? Culture has an historical basis: who are we and what are our values based on where we have been? Leadership must foster a known set of values indicating their importance to key stakeholders in order to facilitate the operational efficiency of the university. This track will include presentations on managing and improving institutional culture and climate and dealing with the problems that arise at the department and college level.
What New Leaders Need to Know
This track is a boot camp for new leaders. Sessions within the track are specific to the main skills required for successful leadership at a higher-education institution, including hiring; development and retention; budgeting and finance; academic policy making; program development, evaluation, and assessment; mediation and problem solving; fundraising and development; communication; and mentoring.
Special Topics in Higher-Education Leadership
With the complexity of leadership roles and responsibilities at different institutions, sometimes our work doesn’t fit neatly into a single category. Submissions for this track represent topics not clearly defined in another track, such as implications of technology, the transformative impact of AI on decision-making and institutional efficiency, effective budgeting, fundraising and development, legal and regulatory issues, curriculum planning and development, or the future of higher education. Submissions for this track must make distinct connection to the roles of higher-education leaders.
Rubric for Proposals
All submissions go through a blind, peer-review process by our advisory board. Members use the following rubrics to evaluate proposals. Because this is a blind review process, anonymity must be maintained in the proposal or it will be automatically excluded. (Please do not include your name or institution within the session information.)
Appropriate
Is the topic appropriate for this conference?
Poor
1
2
3
4
Excellent
5
Does the topic reflect real-world solutions grounded in sound academic research and practice?
1
2
3
4
5
Is the topic relevant to a broad range of institutional settings?
1
2
3
4
5
Interactivity
Does the session include appropriate participant involvement?
1
2
3
4
5
Overall Proposal Quality
Writing, organization, originality.
1
2
3
4
5
Questions?
Email your questions about the submission process to:
Tierney King
Content Manager
tierney.king@magnapubs.com