Holding Higher Education to Account: Measuring What Matters in the Development of Students as Leaders

Abstract

A common claim among institutions of higher education is that “we make leaders.” Although the vast
majority of leaders will certainly pass through the hallowed halls of colleges and universities, whether
and to what extent educational institutions have any actual impact on leader development is an open
question with little supporting evidence. What would such evidence look like if we were to search for it?
And how might we use an evidence-based approach to increase the effectiveness of leader development
initiatives in higher education? This article describes a new initiative at Rice University, the Ann and John
Doerr Institute for New Leaders, the purpose of which is to increase the leadership capacity of students
across the entire university. This institute takes an evidence-based approach to leader development,
uses only professional leader developers in its work, and self-skeptically determines success and failure
through rigorous measurement of outcomes. We present preliminary evidence of progress in student
leader development, along with a call for a more scientific approach to leader development throughout
institutions of higher education.