The front stage of leadership? Vice Chancellor profiles and the performance of self

What makes a Vice Chancellor a Vice Chancellor? This article assesses – through unobtrusive research methods– the 37 public profiles of Australia Vice Chancellors in the nation’s public universities. I deploy non-reactive methods to locate the characteristics deemed of value in each profile, such as qualifications, research field, teaching expertise, personal life, leisure pursuits, and educational and non-educational experiences. I track similarities and differences between the profiles and ponder the development of a ‘genre’ of shared characteristics. In this first international study, the goal is to assess whether recent controversies about university leadership are the result of a ‘few bad apples’ or a systematic valuing of particular attributes and the neglect of other, crucial necessities of university leadership, particularly after a pandemic.