Description: The paper examines how knowledge and values about modernising public service organisations are reflected and transformed by recent policy on higher education in England. It draws on a new research project funded by the UK Economic and Social Research Council (000-23-1136) exploring public service modernisation, particularly how leaders and aspiring leaders in health, secondary schools and higher education see their current or future role in a public service organisation. The project uses theories about the orchestration of complex organisational change (Wallace and Pocklington 2002), ideas about the ambiguity of educational leadership (Hoyle and Wallace 2005) and theories about the mechanisms of modernisation of public services (Reed 2002) through new managerialism. Previous work on the management of UK universities suggests that new managerialism has permeated higher education to a lesser extent than some other public services (Deem 2004; Deem 2004) but with the introduction of variable student fees in England, the idea of higher education as a public service is being questioned (Deem 2005). These concerns are also relevant to the whole European higher education space where the changing purposes and status of publicly-funded universities are now significant matters (Kwiek 2005) as massification raises questions about whether higher education is still a public service, public good (Marginson 2004) or public responsibility (Nyborg 2003). For those who seek to be or already are leaders of universities, these are very fundamental questions. Methodology: The paper will draw on a literature review of recent work on public service modernisation and critical discourse analysis of policy documents about public services in England since the New Labour UK government was first elected in 1997. Conclusions: The paper will be concerned to analyse how well theories and knowledge about new managerial practices and control technologies, leadership and concepts of organisational change are reflected in both recent government policy on public service modernisation in England and in the activities of the UK national leadership body for higher education (the Leadership Foundation) and how all this might impinge on leaders and aspiring leaders of universities. It also considers the wider implications for the European higher education space.