The literature on leadership in higher education has focused on senior managers such as presidents of university, heads of department and deans of faculty, pro-vice chancellors and vice chancellors (Smith et al, 2007). There has not been given enough attention to university professors as intellectual leaders. This study focuses on the roles of professors as intellectual leaders in Turkish higher education institutions. There is limited literature review on the roles of professors as intellectual leaders. However, professors undertake a range of leadership and professional support activities connected with research and teaching practice, mentoring, influencing the work and direction of the university, representing the university in interfacing with wider communities and helping staff to develop ( Tight, 2002, MacFarlance 2010). Many writers on Turkish higher education make it clear that they view the higher education setting as having changed greatly in the last two decades. There are more than 130 higher education institutions and most of them have been established since 1993. The number of professors has been more than 10 000 in state and foundation universities. Not only the number of universities have changed but also the vision, mission of universities have changed. The changing role of universities affected the roles of university professors. The shift of the university toward a more managerial culture, with a growing cadre of permanent rather than rotating senior academic managers, has cast many professors adrift from expectations that they will participate in the formal leadership of the academy (Harman, 2002). The professoriate are not necessarily perceived as a group of key strategic ‘leaders’ or influencers in the same way. The role of the professoriate as intellectual leaders is unclear in this context. While some senior manager-academics will also hold professorial titles as cross boundary ‘hybrid’ workers (Whitchurch,2006; Chambers et al, 2007) their sphere of influence is commonly defined as emanating from their managerial position alone. Professors represent a considerable intellectual asset to institutions. However, there is clearly a degree of mismatch between what professors see as their role and how they perceive the expectations of their university employers (Altbach, 2006) . The perception of profesors may change in ters of what type of university they work. Institutions might look at ways of developing a role description for professors which could draw on some of the qualities identified in this paper. There is also a strong feeling among many professors that institutions might draw more on their skills and expertise. (MacFarlance, 2008, Bassnett, 2004). The purpose of this paper is to descrive the leadership roles of university professors in higher education institutions as an intellectual leader: role model, mentor, advocate, guardian, acquisitor, and ambassador. The findings will be compared in terms of the type of university and Is there any differences in the leadership roles of university professors in terms of age, field and university established dates.

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