Legal literacy is considered as a complex of cognitive, activity and motivational components of the consciousness of student youth. Data is based on a questionnaire survey conducted in 2022 (N = 405). These results are compared with the data of the all-Russian survey “Legal Literacy of Russians” (2020), and supplemented by focus groups in the two largest universities in Tyumen. It was revealed that the students-respondents, in comparison with the population of Russia as a whole, have a more fully formed cognitive component and legal attitudes, but to a lesser extent – legal skills. Both among young and adult Russians, in certain situations, about half of the respondents consider breaking the law acceptable. The main institutions for the formation of legal literacy were the family and the education system, and to a lesser extent the media. Cluster analysis revealed six types of students with very different degrees of legal literacy. Types characterized by its high level accounted for only a quarter of the sample.