Value orientations of Russian students in the conditions of sociocultural changes in the Russian society (the case of the state university of management)

The paper considers the issue of value orientations of modern university students in the conditions of changing Russian society. The author examines the main theoretical approaches to the definition of “value orientations” concept in philosophy and sociology. The research demonstrates which value orientations dominate among the younger generation these days, how they were changing over the past 30 years and in which direction they continue to transform at present time. The novelty of the study is to consider value orientations of the young as in the case of a particular social group, namely students of the State University of Management. There are provided the main results of an empirical study aimed at identifying the dominant value orientations of university students. The method of M. Rokich, distinguishing two classes of values: terminal and instrumental, served a methodological background of the present research. The comparison of the author’s research with data of the opinion poll held among the young people of the late Soviet period revealed the growth of pragmatic trends in value orientations. The study defines the factors of developing value orientations of the modern young people as a perspective direction of the research.