**Abstract**

In Ghana, student unionism has become integral to the leadership culture. Over time, this has witnessed successive national leaders emerging from the wings of student governance. Our study investigates the preferred leadership styles of students in Ghana. The study adopted a quantitative methodology. The population for the study consists of member-students of the Students Representative Council (SRC) of the University of Professional Studies-Accra. The sample comprised students offering various courses from levels 100–400. Ninety-five (95) students were selected using a simple random sampling technique for the study. Anchored on the contingency leadership theory, we found that students preferred to be led through a democratic leadership style (*M* = 3.52, *SD* = 0.45) than laissez-faire (*M* = 3.51, *SD* = 0.42) and autocratic styles (*M* = 2.3, *SD* = 0.72). We also found that senior students prefer autocratic leadership styles. We conclude that students' preference for a democratic leadership style stems from the need to create a participatory environment. This gives followers a sense of ownership of the decision-making process. We also conclude that as students' academic responsibilities increase, they may prefer autocratic leadership styles as it ensures that their needs are met quickly.

**Keywords:** leadership styles, student unions, democratic leadership, autocratic leadership, Laissez-faire leadership, contingency leadership theory
