Research on Motivation for Scientific Activity at Universityas a Corporation as Part of the Institutional Approach
This article analyzes in-depth changes connected with universities turning into corporations in the context of institutional analysis. The research has been conducted in the case-study format, and the respondents included students, post-graduates and young scientists of research specializations at National Research Nuclear University MEPhI. The authors put forward three hypotheses: about possible non-compliance of the students’ values with university ones; about demotivation of third-year students due to absence of individual study correction and lack of confidence in the future after the end of studies as the main reason for demotivation. In the course of studying the peculiarities of motivational characteristics of students and post-graduates with the help of validated methods “Life-purpose orientations” (D.A. Leontiev) and “Sources of motivation” (J. Barbuto and R. Scholl), it was found that third year students and Master degree students are demotivated with regard to studies in comparison with first-year students. This is confirmed by high instrumental motivation and low results at the subscale “Goals in Life” in these subgroups of respondents. It was found that demotivation was connected with increasing anxiety about the future, which is conditioned by practically linear correlation between subscale “Goals in Life” and an integral indicator “Sense of purpose in Life”. In its turn, the level of postgraduates’ expectations exceeds the possible remuneration level. The authors see the resolution of these problems in the development of socio-cultural environment of the university that supports cognitive motivation and creative potential of personality, and also in the system of efficient counseling to support the personality sense-forming structures of students and postgraduates, especially during formation of accelerated development groups.