Abstract
The professional development of university volunteer service education managers directly influences the quality of practical education. This study conducted in-depth interviews with 25 managers from five universities in Guangdong Province, China, and adopted a multi-case study method, using South China Normal University, South China Agricultural University and Guangdong University of Science and Technology as case studies. The research results reveal four characteristics of the career development of these managers: unclear role positioning, narrow skills, limited promotion paths, and fragmented support systems. Their career trajectory is influenced by policy orientation, organizational support and personal ability, among which organizational support is the core constraint. The study identified three practical models: professional leadership, discipline integration and technical empowerment. Meanwhile, the study has built a three-party collaborative development framework of “policy-organization-individual”. The theoretical contributions of this study include: revealing the mediating role of organizational support between macro policies and personal development; expanding the human capital accumulation channel from single training to professional deepening, discipline transformation and practice incubation; and expanding the application scope of service-learning theory from students to managers. This provides an empirical basis for the career development of the university volunteer service education managers.