Study on motives of undertaking a master’s degree in the context of improving the quality of education

The article deals with one of the most important problems of developing the professional trajectory of student personal becoming - motivation for undertaking a Master’s degree. The relevance of the two-level system of higher professional education based on the tendency of formation transprofessional competencies is emphasized. Based on the comparative analysis we have singled out the main approaches to understanding of motives. An attempt has been made to reveal the problem of developing motivation taken in conjunction with different understanding of the quality of education: as a quality - conformity to educational standards; as a system that ensures continuous and accurate activity; as a consumer satisfaction; as an optimal ratio of waste products and the obtained product (knowledge); as a product management activity. Correlation of the motivation and quality of education is represented graphically in the form of a scheme. We have specified the motives for undertaking a Master’s degree according to A. A. Markova’s and A. Maslow’s classification, the system is presented in the table. The principles of working out the questionnaire for candidates for a Master’s Degree in two specialties "Management in Education" and "Modern Technologies of Philological Education" are described. The questionnaire consists of four blocks with questions and statements, concerning the future profession of candidates for a Master’s degree - manager and philologist, personal growth, social needs, formal motives. We have given a descriptive qualitative characteristics of student’s answers: both the most frequently encountered, and the less popular ones.