Postgraduate Diploma in Leadership and Accountability

The Postgraduate Diploma in Leadership and Accountability is designed to improve individual, team and organisational capabilities to provide the strategic directions and change required to achieve organisational and national development goals. The programme connects to the mission and philosophy of the Open University of Kenya (OUK), which is to nurture talents and create opportunities for innovative practices, shaping learners into researchers, leaders, entrepreneurs, and global citizens, and that quality education makes human beings equal. Social and public problems have grown in scale, complexity, and urgency in our globalised world of rapid change and uncertainty. This calls for leaders who can strategise and lead teams to achieve high performance in organisations and to respond to problems in accountable and innovative ways. The programme has been identified as one of the inception programmes to be offered at the OUK, and its content and rationale derive from the vision of the OUK of being the innovative University for inclusive prosperity, shaped by lessons from the Commonwealth of Learning and the Leaders of Africa Institute. The programme is designed to equip learners with knowledge, skills and attitude to understand the environment in which their organisations operate; and align good strategic decision-making to maintain their organisational effectiveness and high performance. It seeks to build learners' capacity to apply theory to everyday situations. Learners will then be able to consult, manage and lead effectively on a range of projects, accomplish issues and initiatives in a variety of organisational settings ranging from schools to business establishments, government bodies, and non-governmental organisations, and from the global, national and community levels. Learners will also be able to take responsibility for their own actions, behaviours, and decision-making, ensuring accountability to their teams and the organisation as a whole. They will develop the knowledge, skills and awareness to empower others to make effective contributions to the leadership and management of their organisations and communities, and be able to critically evaluate contemporary issues in leadership and accountability.