The leadership characteristics and innovation skills of university students are of great importance in order to increase the quality of education in universities and to ensure academic development, change and renewal. This study aimed to investigate the potential leadership and innovation skills of university students with a correlational approach. Therefore, the leadership characteristics and innovation skills of university students were examined based on the variables of gender, year of study and academic career expectations through a descriptive survey design. The participants of this study consist of 343 students studying at 2 state universities in Konya. Personal information form, potential leadership scale and innovation scale were used to collect data. The results of the research showed that there were significant differences in terms of potential leadership characteristics and innovation skills of university students by gender, year of study and academic career expectations. In addition, the potential leadership characteristics of the participants significantly predicted their innovation skills.