Background

Integral formation of college students is an important aspect of university culture in Mexico. From a critical perspective, it's the major frame of reference that can be questioned. Specifically, the moral, democratic and solidary "learning to be" may be opposed to the efficiency, efficacy and quality of the labor market "ought to be" concerning the desirable profile of young professionals with a university degree.

Aims

The focus of this study was to explore the extent to which the university students prioritize moral or economy-oriented values for their professional future.

Method

The elements of a virtuous character, or character strengths (Peterson & Seligman, 2004), were used to measure the self-assessed relevance of moral values for the students of a prestigious private Mexican university. The 24-item survey created and validated by Belykh (2019) was used to assess the moral values' relevance. Additionally, 24 items were created as a counterpart of character strengths, based on the neoliberal logic as described by Han (2014). The instrument showed good psychometric properties (alpha values ranging between .75 and .92 in total and all the dimensions). The sample (N=195) was 56% female, mean age 20 y.o.

Results

Statistical analyses showed that all the virtues but Justice and Transcendence were valued as significantly less relevant by the participants.

Conclusion

This result might, on one hand, provide some elements to confirm the appropriation of the capitalist perspective by the university students who seem to prioritize efficacy and individual competitiveness over wisdom and solidarity. On the other hand, however, the moral values related to justice and transcendence seem to still be a high priority even for this population who benefits from the neoliberal dynamics. Comparative analyses as to public universities and pandemic-related dynamics are now being analyzed in the frame of this project