For a long time in society there was a habitual attitude to higher education as a sign of success in life. The realities of modern life show that higher education alone does not guarantee such success, which increasingly influences the motives for choice. Therefore, more and more often in the answers of respondents begins to sound such a motive as «Getting professional training».

Respondents were offered nine motives for higher education, they had to choose no more than three most important for themselves.

For almost half of the respondents, higher education is the path to «Achieve life success» (51.8 %), «Get professional training» (50.8 %) and «Get a good job» (49.2 %).

For a significant part of respondents (42.2 %) – this is a formal motive – «Get a diploma».

The desire to «self-develop» was chosen by 37.6 %.

Social motives – cultural and status aspects of higher education are less significant, they were chosen by 13.9 % and 10.9 % of respondents, respectively.

They did not define this issue for themselves, they do not know why they need higher education – 1.7 %.

Among the open answers (0.9 %) there were: «For a tick», «Commitment to parents», «Because everyone receives» [23]. Thus, according to this survey, 2.6 % of respondents are not motivated to study at all (1.7+0.9).

The fact that 42.2 % of first-year students still noted the need for a diploma does not indicate a lack of motivation to study. Such a high percentage of a formal approach to learning, in the author’s view, is due to the conditions of the survey, which provided for the possibility of marking three motives. Therefore, those who plan to achieve success in life and get good training could also note the motive «Get a diploma» (Fig. 3.7).