**1. Introduction**

While higher education has traditionally been slow in implementing change, external changes are challenging higher education's resistance to change [1]. More educational providers are being encouraged to move towards more online and blended courses to meet existing students' needs and reach new students [2]. As stated by Folkers [1] coupled with these external changes, higher-level institutes face the continued growth of Internet use, decline in governmental support for education, and the emergence of a new student population. As highlighted by

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Hirshon [3] the nature of education is changing in terms of (i) what higher-level institutes do and (ii) the financial resources available to perform their role. There are three themes that are influencing strategic planning in higher education: (i) population demographics, (ii) the increased importance and changing characteristics of non-traditional students on college campuses, and (iii) the economics of higher education [4]. As acknowledged Bradwell [5], the forces now confronting education in many respects represent a "perfect storm" of institutions expected to offer a more varied provision to a growing number of students in an era where funding is reducing. These are key strategic challenges that institutions must address in order to sustain the delivery of learning opportunities in the medium to long term. One of the leadership challenges that educational institutions face is maximizing the effectiveness of technology to underpin the support and delivery of the curriculum.

One of the most significant levers of changes in higher education will be technology. More programs are incorporating Web sites, more staff and students are using e-mail for in-depth communication and more high-level institutions are facilitating their students in transacting administrative requirements via the Internet [6]. Technology has begun to change the rela‐ tionship between knowledge boundaries, creating new types of communications and under‐ pinning work in novel ways [7].
