The purpose of the article is to study the specificities of students' perception of teacher leadership based on a comparison of the respondents' assessments of teachers' and managers' personal qualities that define them as leaders in their professional activities. Teacher leadership may be associated with innovation, the use of techniques, pedagogical skills, organisational skills, creativity, personal qualities, etc. The following methods have been used in the research: questionnaires and tests based on the method of personal differentials. To determine the peculiarities of teacher leadership, a comparison between respondents' answers about teacher-leaders and manager-leaders was made. The first group of respondents who evaluated the teacher-leaders included 87 students enrolled in the 6th year (master course) at the National Technical University "Kharkiv Polytechnic Institute", Ukraine. The personal qualities of the manager-leaders were assessed by the masters of the "Public Management and Administration" at the same university, who study the master course having working experience from 3 to 23 years. The number of respondents in the second group was 81 students. The results of the research made it possible to determine that students associated pedagogical leadership, first of all, with moral and ethical qualities, pedagogical skills and the subject knowledge of their teachers. On the contrary, the qualities of active life most closely were associated with a manager-leader. The obtained results can be used in the development of university teachers' training programmes.