From campus protests to natural disasters, public health crises, and faculty misconduct, you cannot predict when a crisis will hit your institution—but you can control how you prepare and respond. And you can learn to handle crises in a way that will better protect your students and your institution's reputation.
The Crisis Leadership in Higher Education program equips senior academic leaders with the critical strategies needed to manage crises effectively, safeguarding both students and the institution’s reputation. You’ll gain the tools to respond to emergencies with confidence, develop crisis protocols, and foster long-term institutional success.
Strategies for a Crisis
The Crisis Leadership in Higher Education program offers essential frameworks for proactive crisis planning, ensuring that you have robust management systems in place before a crisis occurs. Designed by faculty from the Harvard Graduate School of Education and Harvard Kennedy School, this program draws on their extensive experience in crisis leadership, higher education policy, and strategic operations.
Program Curriculum
Crisis Leadership in Higher Education is a four-day on campus executive program led by a teaching team from Harvard Kennedy School and the Harvard Graduate School of Education.
Participants will engage in real-world crisis scenarios, such as campus violence or natural disasters, and learn to address the strategic and operational challenges that arise in higher education during crises. You'll also explore communication strategies tailored to the unique needs of educational institutions.
Key outcomes include:
Learning Objectives
Over four days, using real-world case studies, lectures and small group discussions, program faculty will guide you through a variety of concepts and scenarios, examining practical challenges ranging from natural disasters to emergent infectious disease to reputation-threatening campus incidents. Specific program objectives will help you to:
The Crisis Leadership in Higher Education executive program can be even more impactful when you and your leadership team attend together. To support teams of 2 to 5 participants from the same organization, we are offering a 10% team discount for each person. In order to receive the discount, each participant must submit an individual application to be reviewed for admission. If you have any questions or would like more information about how to apply as a team, please reach out to the Program Director.
