Objective: There remains a need for effective and ethical development in students, for cohesive and connected societies of moral actors. This paper adopts an authentic leadership development in students perspective as a possible complement to discipline expertise. This research explored whether taking leadership roles while studying had a positive effect on students' development of authentic leadership attributes, including demographic contributions. Method: This study comprised a quantitative survey of undergraduate students (n = 415) at an Australian university using structural equation modelling to test relationships between student leadership status and authentic leadership. Results: Results demonstrated that student leaders exhibited higher authentic leadership than students who were not leaders. Demographics (e.g. gender) also explained variance across authentic leadership scores. Authentic leadership also served as a useful predictor of whether students intended to take up formal student leadership roles. Conclusions: Practical implications of this research include opportunities for policy development to support leadership opportunities and training for higher education students as a method of developing their authentic leadership.