Future Work through the Eyes of Russian University Students: Regional Differentiation of the Work Vision

Abstract

This article identifies the perception of future work by undergraduate students and the differentiation of work vision depending on individual, institutional, and regional characteristics. It uses data from a survey of Russian university students, commissioned by the Russian Ministry of Science and Higher Education in the summer of 2021. The sample comprises 14,800 students aged up to 29 y.o. studying in full-time bachelor’s programs at Russian universities. The results demonstrate that there is no unified image of work among students. This falsifies some generally accepted judgments about the attitudes of students towards future employment. Contrary to the initial hypotheses, younger generation of students appears to be less instrumental and individualistically oriented than millennials; STEM students, however, more often agree with the statement that “work is just a means of earning money”; and paternal rather than maternal cultural capital has an influence on work attitudes. Students with a high level of economic and human capital are more likely to focus on traditional, rather than flexible, work arrangements and on classic, rather than multiple, career paths. The inclusion of second-level predictors in the analysis made it possible to conclude that in relatively less prosperous regions students are more likely to orient towards entrepreneurial activity, and in regions with higher unemployment rates the likelihood of perceiving work as a priority and willingness to devote more time to it increases.