The article analyzes the formation of leadership qualities of students in institutions of higher education. It is emphasized that the development of the leadership potential of education seekers is an urgent problem for institutions of higher education, since it is during the student years that active formation of value orientations, social position, and determination of life priorities of a young person takes place. Today, a student of higher education can independently make decisions, put forward new ideas, developing leadership potential. Therefore, with the aim of creating leaders of a new generation, the problem of developing the leadership potential of students of geography faculties is gaining relevance. Universities, acting as centers of education, science and culture, have significant opportunities for continuous development of the individual, including his leadership abilities. Accumulating and transmitting innovative pedagogical experience, the university creates a modern educational space that can train high-quality specialists who consciously assume the functions of management and effective leadership in various areas of professional activity.In order to develop and implement forms of work for the development of the leadership potential of geography students, the most effective organizational forms of socio-pedagogical work in the direction of the development of leadership potential have been singled out, namely, training that performs transformative, corrective, preventive and adaptive functions; the student scientific circle is aimed at communication, exchange of ideas and thoughts, improvement and development of knowledge of education seekers in scientific spheres of activity, personality formation; quest – a competition, sequential performance of pre-prepared tasks by individual players or teams; debate; Round Table; individual work; portfolio as a way of recording, accumulating, evaluating and self-assessing personal achievements over a certain period of time, etc.Special attention should be paid to the diagnosis of the leadership abilities of higher education students studying at the Faculty of Geography of the Yuriy Fedkovich Chernivtsi National University, conducted according to the methodology of E. Zharikov and E. Krushelnytskyi. This technique allows you to assess a person's ability to be a leader. After analyzing the results, we see that the leadership qualities of most of the applicants are below average, which is characterized by a lack of desire to communicate, a tendency to spend time alone. They don't feel active and relaxed. It is difficult for such students to establish contacts with people. They do not stand up for their point of view, they hardly tolerate criticism. They practically do not show initiative, do not make independent decisions. In practice, there is still a fairly significant proportion of students who, according to their personal manifestations, are quite non-initiative, do not have any expressed abilities and do not seek to express themselves, to achieve a prestigious social status by their own efforts. Such manifestations complicate the processes of their social adaptation and professional development.Therefore, the analysis of the state of study of the problem of leadership and the formation of leadership qualities in the works of Ukrainian and foreign scientists recognizes the insufficient level of research on the problem of the formation of leadership qualities among students of geographical universities. The development of modern interactive forms and methods of forming leadership qualities in students of geography faculties requires further scientific study.