[4] The following year, he moved to the University of Melbourne to be a senior lecturer;[2] while there, he and Bill Fitzwater presented a programme on ABC called What is Music?.
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.
In 1994, he moved back to Northern Ireland with his partner Ana de Brito and worked with the Belfast Chamber Music Society.
[2][1] The Independent remarked in his obituary that he "enjoyed an energetic academic career [... and] left a trail of institutional and pedagogical improvements behind him".
[1] A commemorative concert for Deane was held at the Bridgewater Hall, Manchester in September 2007, and was the inspiration for a tribute CD issued in 2013.