Purpose: This paper is an interweaving of virtues ethics perspectives of the relational and role grounded with the situational and agent and is explored through the patterns of academic freedom. It uses a notion of Confucian-inspired "role virtue ethics" where obligation, procedure and virtue mix in a relational way with a community of scholarly practice. This counter-intuitive linking of ritual with freedom reveals the importance of the former in defending and maintaining academic freedom: a freedom with rule-based obligations. Design/methodology/approach: Applied philosophical approach to a pressing problem in higher education and indeed to all education. Findings: The paper seeks a preliminary blending of eastern and western understanding to proceed to a "virtue role ethic" for higher education scholars and is presented as a more relational way of being than the contemporary notion of being a fitting scholar in higher education. Practical implications: A synthesis of western and Confucian approach may offer insights to other ethical issues for educational management. Social implications: A synthesis of western and Confucian approach may offer insights to other ethical issues for educational management. Originality/value The development of role virtue ethics more the discussion away from dispositions and from situational to a blending of both.