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UK higher education is undergoing a period of significant change that generates a series of tensions and difficulties for universities and university leaders.This paper explores these tensions through analysis of findings from a studycomprising 152 semi-structured face-to-face interviews in 12 UK universities.Building on from theories of ‘distributed leadership’ in schools, five mainconstituent elements of leadership practice in higher education are identified(personal, social, structural, contextual and developmental) and explored toshow how they shape perceptions and experiences of leadership. The paperconcludes with a refined model that teases apart the multilayered nature ofhigher education leadership at individual, group and organisational levels. Inparticular, it is argued that ‘social capital’ and ‘social identity’ act as importantbridges between individual agency and organisational structure and thatalthough widely distributed, higher education leadership may be best regardedas ‘hybrid’.

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