in 1953 deane was appointed to an assistant lectureship at the university of glasgow, and was promoted to a full lectureship three years later. he also embarked on a phd on albert roussel, which was awarded by glasgow in 1958. the following year, he moved to the university of melbourne to be a senior lecturer; while there, he and bill fitzwater presented a programme on abc called "what is music?". they went on to present "cities of music" and "music is...", as well as a biography of percy grainger for the bbc (1969) and a documentary about erik satie (1972). deane returned to england in 1966 to lecture at the university of nottingham. in 1968, he was appointed james rossiter hoyle professor of music at the university of sheffield, and served in that post until 1975 when he became professor of music at the university of manchester. in 1980, he became music director for the arts council; he cut funding to the d'oyly carte opera company (which "caused him some pain", according to "the guardian"), but allocated greater funding to opera north and the contemporary music network. then three years later moved to hong kong to be director of the academy for performing arts. he then held – as his final academic post – the peyton and barber professorship of music at the university of birmingham between 1987 and 1992, when he retired. while at birmingham, he established a student-run music festival in the final week of the summer term.