This study examines a teaching-oriented higher education community which undertook a major programme of change when planning a new campus and redesigning its pedagogics. This is a single case qualitative study based on in-depth interviews of community members and field observations and using activity theory as an analytical framework. It is suggested that instead of merely being a rhetorical tool of senior management, distributed leadership can be practised in higher education communities for the benefit of the learners, the teaching and administrative staff and the local community. The study emphasises the importance of the joint sense making of the pedagogical approach in the creation of distributed leadership practices in a teaching-oriented higher education community. It also highlights how higher education students may take an active role in a work system characterised by distributed leadership, and how the infrastructure of a campus building may support distributed leadership.