Instructional leadership demands educational leaders to become intensely involved in improving teaching and learning. While extensive research found this approach to be beneficial in school settings, it was insufficiently explored in higher education. Therefore, the current study explored how Israeli higher education leaders perceive their leadership role in relation to teaching and learning. Participants were 22 heads of departments in higher education institutions in Israel. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews, and analysed in a four-stage process--condensing, coding, categorising and theorising. Findings indicated that higher education leaders in Israel demonstrated very little instructional leadership, based on three perceptions: regarding the autonomy of faculty members, the low priority of teaching quality in higher education, and the style of teaching required in academia. To enable the borrowing of instructional leadership from the school system context to the higher education context, a customised version of instructional leadership is needed.