Agency of Students and Graduates of Russian Universities in the Sphere of Labor and Employment: Educational Experience and Well-Being

The article offers an approach to identifying “agentic” students and graduates in the field of work and employment of university, and analyzes the differences between the respective groups in terms of their educational experience (with an emphasis on higher education) and well-being. To identify agency, understood as an activity related to proactive influence on surrounding structures, we refer to respondents’ self-identification of their current employment status, as well as their experience of project work in the job place (for corporate entrepreneurs). We call “agentic” those respondents who indicated entrepreneurship or self-employment/freelancing as their main source of income (due to the need for them to be agentic by creating a new structure in the economic field and ensure its functioning), as well as corporate entrepreneurs (that is, corporate employees with experience in project leadership). Corporate employees without project leading experience at their main workplace; respondents with partial integration in the labor market (for example, odd jobs); respondents outside the labor market. We found that individuals in “agentic” positions in the labor market are more likely to initiate changes in the educational process at the university, as well as participate in formal and informal organizations at the university and, in general, be proactive in educational activities. They are also characterized by higher levels of well-being. These findings indicate the important role of the university in the formation of educational and professional trajectories against the background of the growing demand for individual agency in conditions of increased variability of social structures (neo-structuration).