Transforming educational leadership in Indian higher education ecosystem: Post-COVID-19 perspectives

India, the most populated country, has more than 800 universities catering to its higher education needs. The unexpected COVID-19 pandemic has initially created a setback for Higher Education institutions (HEIs) in the country largely due to the digital gap. Many students in rural areas did not have the privilege of having technology and undisturbed internet connections. Programmes and courses that require skill training practical and social integration were mainly affected. Maintaining continuity in academics became the key importance of higher education leadership. However, the sudden disruption transformed HEI leadership by quickly creating new learning opportunities, several reforms to build resilience, and ensuring continuity in academics made a positive impact in times of COVID-19. Within a short period of pandemic shutdowns, the mainstream HEIs could move to online and technology-enabled pedagogy and academic activities. The existing strong EdTech sector in online education has greatly helped the higher education ecosystem to transform into technology-oriented education across all its streams. Post-COVID-19 pandemic, the focus of academic leadership moved towards re-envisioning of higher education funding, affordable and effective technology use, industry-academia collaborations, and effective resource management in addition to teaching and research perspectives. Safeguarding the privacy and confidentiality of intellectual and academic properties in an evolving technology-oriented education would be one of the major challenges envisaged in higher education. This chapter explores how higher education leadership has transformed during the pandemic and different perspectives of futuristic leadership for the higher education ecosystem in India.