A changing role for university professors? Professorial academic leadership as it is perceived by ‘the led’

This article examines the academic leadership role of university professors in the UK (a grade title which in that national context generally refers only to the most distinguished, senior academics, who equate to the North American full professor). Drawing on theoretical interpretations of professionalism and applying these to professors, it analyses selected preliminary findings from a funded study that explored the nature of professorial academic leadership by gathering data from academics, teachers and researchers who are not themselves professors and who thus constitute ‘the led’. The findings revealed an unclearly defined professorial academic leadership role that seems to reflect expectations that professors should be all things to all people, and within which three key features of professorial practice were highlighted: distinction, knowledge, and relationality. The article considers the extent to which this represents a changed or changing role for professors in the UK, and concludes that the notion of the UK‐based professor—in the singular—is very elusive.