Responding to diverse demands: Shapes of university leadership steering capacity regarding education enhancement

Universities are required to increasingly enhance their learning and teaching. Many universities have centres for excellence in teaching and learning (in short centres) to face those demands. We explore how university leadership steering capacity interacts with those centres in a qualitative, multiple case study of four universities. Our findings show that 1) university leadership steering capacity takes different shapes in national and local contexts, 2) centres can play a crucial role in contributing with their knowledge from the HE sector and about the academic community. Combining external and internal legitimacy contributes to achieving a collective process of education quality enhancement and is, therefore, a viable option for university leadership to meet their responsibilities.