The article analyzes the statements that consider the influence of ethnic and religious factors on the urban daily life of students, assesses the attitude of young people to the power structures in the field of preserving the traditional urban environment. The article is devoted to the results of sociological studies conducted during 2014-2018 in the urban student environment of the city of Makhachkala. The author of the article draws attention to the perspectives that allow to activate interethnic tolerance in the urban environment of Makhachkala, indicates the presence of corporate religiosity, and describes conditional division of the student urban environment into groups. Data slice of student consciousness was obtained from groups belonging to different ethnocultural worlds; the factors that have a consolidating potential for strengthening ethnic tolerance are analyzed. It was concluded that the issues of national identification are vitally important in the urban student environment, and the issues of inter-ethnic and inter-religious contact are quite relevant for new young generations of Russians.