First-year students’ adaptation practices in the university in risk society

Volume 5, Number 1, 2020, P. 86–99

[ SOCIOLOGICAL SCIENCES ]

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Abstract:

Higher education has been considered for a rather long period of modern Russian history as a significant value in the youth consciousness, attracting a huge number of applicants to universities every year. However, majority of young people face challenges when choosing self-realization in a constantly changing reality. This pattern is particularly evident during graduation from a comprehensive school and the choice of future professional activity. Often, this affects attitude of young people to the learning process in university, as well as on the subsequent implementation of the acquired professional skills in their work. The article examines the phenomenon of adaptation of first-year students in university in a risk society. It emphasizes the ambiguity of the key concepts “adaptation” and “risk society”. The theoretical approaches formed in sociological science are considered regarding these concepts. The results of applied sociological research among firstyear students of the Kuban State University are presented, showing the status and main problems of adaptation to new educational and sociocultural practices. A sociological study was conducted in the form of a questionnaire at the end of the first semester of training. About 198 students of various specialties and forms of training took part in the survey. The processing of the results was carried out using the SPSS software package. The results obtained indicate that the period of firstyear students’ adaptation is a highly dynamic process, the result of which depends on the personal qualities of a student, the ability to actively restructure his/her socio-psychological characteristics, self-organization, as well as on educators’ and administration’s activities.

Keywords:

first-year students, social adaptation, professional adaptation, psychological adaptation, adaptation problems, domestic adaptation, first-year students’ socialization, risk society

Author:

Victor B. Bolshov, Candidate of Sociological Sciences, Associate Professor of Sociology Department, Кuban State University, Krasnodar, Russia

For citation:

Bolshov V.B. (2020) First-year students’ adaptation practices in the university in risk society. Sotsial’naya kompetentnost’ = Social Competence. Vol. 5. No. 1. P. 86–99. (In Russ.)

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