The presented article discusses the issues of involvement of university leaders in academic activities. The relevance of this problem lies in the fact that at the present day an active transformation of the roles performed by the head of the university is taking place. On the one hand, the traditional rector’s role format, expressed in the formula «first among equals», is in a state of constant and radical changes today. A particularly significant role in this process is played by the managerialization of university management and the resulting approaches to attract managers from other fields of activity to the rectors’ posts. They can be from government, business or public organizations. On the other hand, those university rectors, who came to the management system from academic environment, nowadays, as a rule, remain in the professional cohort of managers and rarely return to academic activities. In this regard, research issues arise: how do university leaders identify themselves and which community values are a priority to them? The authors of the article analyze the results of scientific activities of the heads of the country’s leading universities over the past 5 years. Based on the obtained data, a typology of preserving academic identity of university leaders at the present stage has been developed. Hypotheses for further transformation of the managerial and academic roles of Russian universities’ rectors have been formulated.The article may be of interest to universities’ leading employees.