Purpose: The purpose of the study is to determine the degree to which Uganda's public universities feel obligated to adopt socially responsible leadership practices and, in turn, live up to the expectations of their stakeholders. A crucial component of higher education institutions is socially responsible leadership in universities. Design/methodology/approach: A total of 22 leaders of Uganda's public universities participated in semi-structured interviews that the researchers conducted. Four main themes emerged from thematic analysis of the gathered data. Findings: The researchers discover that although the leaders are willing to act appropriately in accordance with social norms, they do not fully exercise the four dimensions (moral excellence in character, stakeholder collaboration, personal abilities and moral direction). The respondents also went on to explain that they were unsure about how to start helping their societies function better as a whole. Originality/value: As far as the researchers are aware, this is the first study to look empirically into socially responsible leadership practices in a university setting (public universities in this case), especially in developing and Orient countries.