The article presents the substantiation of the essence of the concept of “key managerial competence of students”, highlights the components, indicators and levels of formation of this competence. The purpose of the article is to identify and substantiate the components, indicators and levels of development of the key managerial competence of university students. Methodology and results of the study. The research is based on systematic, competence-based and axiological methodological approaches. The systematic approach allows us to explore the process of formation of key managerial competence as a system; the axiological approach reveals the values that underlie the development of this competence and management decision-making; the competence approach allows us to evaluate the components of key managerial competence of students based on the definition of indicators and levels of its development. The methods of analysis, synthesis, comparison and generalization used made it possible to analyze educational and professional standards, the main tasks of students enrolled in programs of psychological and pedagogical orientation and to develop the structure of key managerial competence of students, level indicators of the formation of this competence. The characteristic of the level indicators of the development of the components of the key managerial competence of university students proposed by the authors will be used for further scientific and pedagogical research.