Institutional and structural barriers to sustainable leadership careers in higher education

As higher education institutions face intensifying pressures, effective leadership has become a cornerstone of institutional resilience. Yet leadership careers in higher education remain ad hoc and fragmented. This article explores how senior leaders perceive institutional and structural barriers that hinder sustainable leadership careers. Combining the Systems Theory Framework with the Sustainable Careers Model, we refer to sustainable careers as the alignment between individual needs and institutional conditions, leading to viable trajectories. Drawing on a mixed-methods study on senior higher education leaders in Switzerland (survey N = 312; 24 interviews), we show that perceived key barriers include weak succession planning, insufficient preparation, limited peer exchange, expanding competency demands, and excessive managerialisation, reinforced by systemic knowledge expectations and cultural hierarchies privileging academic prestige. Addressing these challenges requires institutional reforms that strengthen professionalisation, succession planning, role clarity, and peer networks, alongside structural measures such as simplifying accountability, expanding mobility, and building system-wide leadership programs.