MOTIVATION ATTITUDES OF HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS TO CONTINUE THEIR EDUCATION AND QUALIFICATION AT THE SOUTH – WEST UNIVERSITY “NEOFIT RILSKI”

In the modern conditions of market economy development, the world of professions depends on technological and cultural globalization, hyper competition, widespread use of the latest state-of-the-art technologies and considerable growth of the realm of intellectual labour. The gap between educated and non-educated people is also growing fast, the popularity of professions essential for society is diminishing, and some have already disappeared. The determining factors for successful personal professional realization become increasingly complex. This trend is more visible and contradictory in the local social and economic spaces. The real situation of the regional labour market does not guarantee a permanent job, and severely limits the opportunity for jobs that match individual qualifications. These conditions threaten to narrow the range of options regarding the choice of a university and an academic concentration, and orientates people towards survival strategies (supporting realization in the home town and domination of social models of behavior). In this sense there is an actual need of a complex examination of all the factors and conditions influencing the life choices of university applicants, of the dynamics of their planning strategies and self-determination (as an orientation towards a university or profession), which is considered essential for the development of efficient university policies with a view to attracting students and modernizing the educational process. For a long period of time career orientation problems have been seen as consequences of career consulting and social and psychological diagnostics, underestimating the subjectivity factor in prospective students. All the abovementioned aspects urge us to examine the life strategies of high school students related to their choice of university education as part of their career development within the context of significant social and economic changes. The research discussed herein focuses on the motivation attitudes of students to continue their study at South- West University. A survey has been conducted to reveal the content of the three basic reactions that come with the attitudes – 1. Cognitive reactions or beliefs, reflecting their knowledge of the university and the personal perceptions of it; 2. Affective reactions connected to the evaluation of the university, its social and economic environment, the emotional attitude of students. 3. Conative reactions revealing students’ intentions to continue their education, to make decisions, or highlighting certain tendencies in their development of a personal attitude towards the university. The results of the survey show that the motivation attitudes depend on the public prestige of the university, the parents’ opinion (especially those who have graduated from the same university and have a successful career), the range of academic majors on offer, and the social and economic standards.