Factors of Internal and External Work Values Formation among Russian Universities’ students

Abstract

The article aims to identify the types of students` work values and differentiate the probability of their prevalence among students with different characteristics. This article uses survey data from the project “Monitoring the Student Experience” collected in eight Russian universities in 2020. The author distinguished seven types of students’ work values based on factor analysis. Two of them referred to internal values (social utility, self-development), and the five work values — to external ones (material advancement, security, communication, mobility, and flexibility). The regression analysis helped identify factors that determine the corresponding work value. Working at the university while studying, living in the dormitory, and studying in the Humanities and Social Science majors increase the likelihood of being oriented towards social utility and contribute to the perception of work as a social duty. Working inside or outside the university, studying engineering, and getting higher grades - tend to increase the likelihood of the “self-development” value formation. At the same time, closeness to graduation decreases the probability of following the internal work values and increases the reorientation towards the value of security and stability.

Acknowledgments. The author expresses her gratitude to the scientific advisor, Vadim V. Radaev (Cand. Sci. (Econ.), Professor of the HSE University, for valuable comments while preparing the article, and to an anonymous reviewer for the constructive criticism. The author also thanks for the opportunity to use the data collected in the study “Monitoring of Student Experience” of the Consortium “Evidence-based digitalization for student success” (https://en.edtechdata.ru/conso). The gratitude is expressed to the coordinators of the universities participating in this study: T. Apollonova, Y. Tsofina, K. Lyakh, K. Mertins, O. Shulezhko, K. Zakharyin, N. Zagritsenko, E. Ledkov, and N. Tutykhin.