Glynis Breakwell did not set out to become a vice-chancellor. “I was fascinated by what I was doing, which was being an academic psychologist,” she said.

Even so, she found herself eight years ago, at the age of 47, becoming vice-chancellor of the University of Bath – the job she still holds today.

Her story is a common one among the leaders of British universities. At meetings of Universities UK, their representative body, she is likely to meet Sir Howard Newby, the vice-chancellor of the University of Liver-pool. Newby previously held the same post at Southampton and Bristol’s University of the West of England, and in between had a spell of running the Higher Education Funding Council, which pays for the entire system. He said: “When I decided on an academic career, my ambition was to be a professor, nothing beyond that.”

There are 133 vice-chancellors. Their average annual pay in 2006-7, the last year for which figures have been released, was £178,000, with the best rewarded receiving more than £300,000. There is no formal career path to the job. A vacancy will usually be advertised, but the successful candidate is likely to have waited for an invitation to apply from a headhunter appointed by the university to identify contenders.

Steve Smith, vice-chancellor of the University of Exeter and incoming president of Universities UK, said: “It’s a post for which you have to be recommended.”

Headhunters are almost invari-ably involved. A recent study of vice-chancellor appointments, carried out by Breakwell, found they were used in 30 out of 32 appointments between 2004 and 2007. Diana Ellis, head of higher education and independent schools at the headhunter Odgers Ray and Berndtson, said: “Every appointment is different. We do not make the decision on who is appointed, but help the university to make the best appointment from a wider range of candidates than it might find by itself.”

Their soundings are based on a briefing from the university and constant conversation with people in the sector. Ellis said: “There is no ‘little black book’ with people who are qualified. We are talking all the time about potential candidates, and may talk directly to 10 or 14 before identifying a list of perhaps six to be interviewed by the university.”

So who gets recommended? While outsiders are not excluded, the majority of vice-chancellors come from academic backgrounds. Breakwell’s report found that 82% of those appointed between 1997 and 2006 already had the title of professor. Her own progression followed the classic path: “I was professor, then head of department, then pro [deputy] vice-chancellor at the University of Surrey. I didn’t particularly want to be a manager or leader, but it was a way of contributing to things I cared about and believed in. The phone calls about whether I would be interested in becoming a vice-chancellor came surprisingly early in my time as a pro vice-chan-cellor. What stimulated me then was that Bath, a wonderful university, came along.”

In interviews with other vice-chancellors for her report she found that they rated “academic credibility” highly as a qualification for the job. Exeter’s Smith agreed but pointed out: “I was rather taken aback that in a meeting with the headhunters, two with the appointment panel and two with staff groups, there was no mention of my academic work.” Academic management remains a key element, but is not the only one. Ellis at Odgers said: “These are demanding and complicated jobs requiring a range of skills, including financial management, communication, leadership and vision, a strategic grasp and the ability to build relationships outside the university. Ability to raise funds is mentioned much more than it used to be.”

There is no formal training programme. Liverpool’s Newby said: “There isn’t anything that does for vice- chancellors what Harvard Business School does for chief executives, and there ought to be.”

Over the past decade 44 vice-chancellors and 75 deputies have taken the Leadership Foundation for Higher Education’s Top Management Programme aimed at senior staff.

Course leader Robin Middlehurst said: “Participants are nominated by their institution. Over six months there are three one-week courses, three days of action learning in small groups with a facilitator and a 360-degree review with one-on-one coaching.”

Smith said: “You have to find ways of getting up to speed on national debates and showing that you can see beyond your own subject and institution.” Newby, who had already headed the Economic and Social Research Council before he went to Southampton, said: “It does help to some extent if you already have a national profile.”

Among the most demanding elements in the job is representing the university, Newby said. “You epito-mise your university, whether you like it or not, and you need communication skills that enable you to get across in five minutes an explanation of what it does to somebody who has little or no idea of it.”

Breakwell said that most of all the job required stamina. “You can’t sit in your office and issue orders. You have to be out and about not only in the university but in your surrounding community and region.”

Given the range of skills required it is no surprise that Odgers headhunter Ellis sees a preference for “people with experience of different institutions and types of work rather than 25 years in one place”.

While most promotions up to the level of pro vice-chancellor are internal, the final step almost always involves a move.

A vice-chancellor such as David Greenaway at Nottingham University is the exception to Newby’s general rule that “internal candidates have too much baggage”.

Breakwell’s own research found a shift from the engineers who predominated in the past towards social scientists, which she reckons may be due to headhunters looking beyond the old networks, and a steady rate of 15% women appointments over the past decade.

The likeliest age of appointment was the early fifties, she said, probably “because you can be around long enough to make a difference, but not long enough to get tired”.

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