Abstract:

New generations of students enter universities every year having different needs, styles and ways of learning, as well as expectations of what university education has to provide. There is no denying the fact that universities have to provide quality education that will meet their students’ needs as well as help develop competencies and value attitudes that are necessary for students’ future careers. Therefore, it is important for university teachers to be aware of students’ needs as well as learn more about things that students value and believe in and expect from university studies. There has been a lot of research carried out recently into different aspects of new generation of students. Many researchers focus on investigating different aspects of teaching new generation of students (Wilson, 2004; Stewart, 2009; Roehling, Kooi, Dykema, Quisenberry, 2011; Nikirk, 2012; Benfer, Shanahan, 2013; Cavallero, 2013; Fisher, 2018). However, there has not been much research done into new generation students’ value attitudes. This is important because of several reasons. Having finished their studies at universities, our new generation of students will enter different businesses and fill in job vacancies not only in national but in international labour markets as well, which means that generally speaking, in one way or the other, they will become responsible for shaping the future of our societies. What kind of contribution they will make very much depends on their value attitudes. According to the survey carried out in USA by N. Bell (2011), it seems evident that the next generation may be expected to make many positive contributions to the business world. However, evidence of a similar kind of the research in other countries seems to be lacking. Therefore, the aim of this quantitative research was to find out the Lithuanian students' value attitudes and to gain insights into how they may be expected to change the business world. The research was carried out in 2018 at Vilnius University. Having compared the research findings with the results of the above-mentioned research, it seems obvious that there are some similarities as well as differences in students’ value attitudes, which might be due to cultural differences. However, the analysis of the research data could shed some more light on students’ value attitudes and their stance towards their future careers and consequently, on the possible development of our societies in the future at large. The findings of the research might also be useful for the improvement of educational process at universities teaching new generation of students.

Keywords:

New generation of students, value attitudes, universities, business world, society.