How can a new generation of students be equipped to take up positions of responsibility in a dynamic global environment, serving as leaders and citizens who will further the good of societies around the world? As the institutions responsible for educating the next generation of citizens and leaders at a formative time in their intellectual and personal development, universities have an important role to play in shaping those who will shape society. While many universities emphasize their desire to raise up future leaders for our challenging times, programmes that actively seek to help students develop qualities of character required for responsible leadership are rare. This article discusses the importance of character in leadership education and draws on a case study programme at the University of Hong Kong, which made use of a creative combination of in-person and online learning to help students grow in their intellectual understanding of leadership as well as in the self-knowledge and virtues of character required to enact responsible leadership in their own lives. The article describes the pedagogical methodology that was employed and presents the results of an exploratory, quasi-experimental longitudinal study of the programme's impact, which was designed to establish proof of concept. The analysis of qualitative data supports the potential of such programmes to make a positive contribution to students' intellectual understanding of leadership as well as their leadership identity and ethical formation. Copyright ©2024 Springer.

Internationalisation has become a worldwide trend in Higher Education in the rapidly changing globalised competitive market. Universities are pressurised to develop internationalised strategy to build legitimacy and reputation within the knowledge-based economy. An isomorphic tendency has been identified of universities mimicking successful models. Among a wide range of strategic tools, the organisational legitimacy theory allows universities to focus on exploiting their resources and capability to position idiosyncratically against competitors. This study applies Stensaker et al.'s legitimacy framework on cognitive, moral and pragmatic perspectives, to investigate how a university adopts an internationalisation strategy as one of the approaches to achieve the overall institutional objectives. Drawing on a case study of the Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU), the paper explores how the university internationalises in a differentiated position to acquire legitimacy in specific local, regional and global contexts. PolyU strategically emphasises its pragmatic value to connect with its stakeholders in a globalised dimension. The finding broadly supports the notion of comprehensive internationalisation; that internationalisation strategy should be incorporated into other functional strategies to enhance a 'global' experience. The analysis of the strength and weaknesses of PolyU's internationalisation strategies illustrates the challenges non-western universities are facing. This finding, while preliminary, raises the significance of local elements in internationalisation strategies, under the influence of soft power and constraints of organisational capabilities. Copyright © 2022 Springer.