Purpose: Mentoring is a crucial aspect of leadership development. However, the knowledge base about mentoring with regard to student leadership development is still emerging and has yet to be explored in depth. Thus, this paper explores college directors' mentorship, as a form of faculty mentoring, in developing students' leadership in Malaysia. Design/methodology/approach: A qualitative research design was utilized, by which semi-structured interviews were used to collect data from four college directors. Data were analyzed and coded using ATLAS.ti 9. Findings: The findings provide new insights into how college directors mentor students to develop them as leaders. Specifically, the findings show that directors, as transformational leaders, can play a significant mentoring function in enhancing students' leadership via role-modeling for students to accumulate leadership-related knowledge and skills. Research limitations/implications: This study centered on the role of college directors who are transformational leaders, mentoring with authority, vision and role-modeling for student leaders' leadership development. Originality/value: The study offers empirical evidence about the significance of college directors' mentorship in enhancing student leadership in Malaysia.