Social Behavior of Students in Higher Education (Based on the Results of a Sociological Study in the Rostov Region, Russia)

The transformational processes in the field of higher education in Russia, associated with the introduction of new educational practices, actualize the importance of studying changes in the social behavior of university students. The main purpose of the study was to clarify the characteristics of the social behavior of university students, conditioned by external and internal factors. The methodological construct included synthesis of socially deterministic and neoinstitutional approaches, the theory of mental programs, the theory of generations, the value approach of M. Rokeach, as well as the activity-based approach to the study of social practices. Reforms in the higher education system in Russia, which were accompanied by the emergence of a new educational environment and excessive social inequalities, were studied as external factors. Mental programs were studied as internal factors, which included ideas about education as a terminal and instrumental value, attitudes and motives of practices. The research was based on the data of the authors' questionnaire survey of 382 students from 7 universities of the Rostov region. Identifying the features of the mental programs of university students and their educational practices made it possible to identify six types of social behavior of students in the educational sphere: traditional, career, pragmatic, traditional and career, traditional and pragmatic, and career and pragmatic. The analysis of the results allows drawing conclusions about the high readiness of students to new educational practices, which are still poorly implemented. At the same time, motivation depends on mental programs, and the educational practices themselves depend on the conditions created in universities. The results of the study may be of interest to specialists dealing with the issues of social behavior of students in the context of transformations of the higher education system.