Leadership coupling under global-national tensions: governance configurations in China’s leading universities

This study examines how university leadership is configured under conditions of intensifying global–national tensions, focusing on China’s leading universities. While research on higher education governance has often emphasized either managerial professionalization or state control, less attention has been paid to how these logics are combined within leadership structures. To address this gap, the study introduces the concept of leadership coupling to capture the institutionalized relationship between Party secretaries and university presidents. Drawing on a biographical dataset covering 147 Double First-Class universities and 132 Party secretary–president leadership pairs, the analysis identifies three configurations of leadership coupling – aligned, complementary, and fragmented – based on professional background, international orientation, and institutional mobility. Complementary coupling emerges as the most prevalent pattern, suggesting that leadership is frequently organized through functional differentiation rather than uniformity. The findings provide insight into how political and professional leadership roles are coordinated within China’s hybrid governance framework. Although leadership profiles exhibit increasing professionalization, political authority remains institutionally embedded within governance structures. The study conceptualizes this pattern as ‘professionalization without depoliticization,’ suggesting that professional and political logics are institutionally combined rather than mutually exclusive. By shifting the analytical focus from individual attributes to relational configurations, the study provides new empirical evidence on leadership dynamics and advances theoretical debates on higher education governance. More broadly, the findings challenge assumptions of convergence toward Western managerial models and suggest that hybrid governance arrangements may represent durable responses to the dual pressures of global academic competition and national strategic priorities.