This thesis explores the implementation of academic servant leadership in a faith-based university in Indonesia. The exploration includes the academic leaders’ understanding on the concept and practise of servant leadership. Their perceptions are analysed in order to construct the theory of academic servant leadership in the HE sector. The case study method was chosen as the methodology since it is able to explain the academic servant leadership phenomena from the leaders’ perspective in their context. Data was collected from thirty higher education leaders who participated in a semi-structured interview. The analysis shows that servant leadership is driven by three motives: service, influence and improvement. The motives for servant leadership influence their characteristics which consist of spiritual, intrapersonal and relational characteristics. These concentric characteristics are then manifested into five servant leadership actions namely ‘pergumulan’, individual meetings, institutional meetings, dealing with conflicts and fostering collaborations. The researcher argues that academic servant leaders need to have a pure motive and strong character in order to enact their servant leadership. The manifestation of their characters into actions cannot be separated from three contextual matters at the case campus, namely hierarchical academic leadership, organisational changes and external challenges and opportunities.