Introduction. Global educational trends (pedagogy using artificial intelligence, personalization, lifelong learning, pedagogy of care and relationships, etc.) and the specifics of their influence and spread in the Russian context contribute to the introduction of innovations in the educational process at all levels. Among the significant innovations is a change in the positions of the teacher and the student, the characteristics of their interaction and educational relations: the teacher in the role of a supportive and guiding mentor, a mentor for the “self-managing” student. At the level of higher education, student coursework can be identified as a pedagogical means that promotes the development of the skills of “self-managing” teachers. Choosing a topic for course work is an integral part of the educational process, in which a large share of responsibility lies with the student. The purpose of this article is to analyze the retrospective reflection of the subjective quality of choice of term paper topic selection in humanities. Research methods. 80 third-year students of the Faculty of Linguistics and Translation and the Institute of Education and Practical Psychology of Chelyabinsk State University took part in the empirical study. As diagnostic tools for studying retrospective reflection of the process of choosing a topic for a course work, students used: questionnaire “Subjective quality of choice” D.A. Leontyev, Method for analyzing the argumentation of choice D.A. To statistically verify the results obtained, the Mann-Whitney U test was used. Results of the study. A qualitative analysis of students' choice of coursework topic reveals irrelevant differences between two groups of humanities students. According to the results of the study, it is important to note the following positive manifestations of the majority of students of both specialties (70-95%) in choosing a topic, characterizing them as “self-managing” students: activity, independence, responsibility, taking on a certain degree of risk, a meaningful attitude towards the situation of choice. However, at the same time, students need psychological and pedagogical support from their supervisor, which, in our opinion, allows them to reduce the identified anxiety (40% of educational psychologists and 60% of linguists) and the feeling of pressure (65% of educational psychologists and 75% of linguists) in the process of selecting and actually writing the course work, subject to the necessary requirements. The results obtained allow university teachers to build effective subject-subject interaction based on cooperation and taking into account the “self-governing” position of students. Conclusion. Subjective assessment of the quality of choice allows faculties and departments to moderate their work on the preparatory activities for writing term papers.