The article examines speech culture as a key component of language competence among higher education students. The author emphasizes that mastering the norms of the literary language, adhering to ethical and stylistic standards in communication, is an indicator not only of a person’s general education but also of their readiness for professional and social interaction. The main components of speech culture are analyzed, including accuracy, clarity, logic, appropriateness, purity, expressiveness, and aesthetic quality of speech. Particular attention is paid to common violations of linguistic norms observed in the student environment: the use of colloquial, slang, and foreign words without necessity, unjustified calques, bureaucratic expressions, as well as syntactic and orthoepic errors. The article outlines the main causes of linguistic carelessness, such as low reading culture, the influence of social media, and the decline in linguistic standards in everyday and educational communication. The author proposes a number of pedagogical and methodological strategies aimed at cultivating a high level of speech culture among students. These include the integration of communicative training into the educational process, regular involvement of students in stylistic text analysis, and the activation of creative language practices. Examples of typical speech situations are provided to demonstrate the contrast between cultured and uncultured language use, highlighting the importance of speaker selfreflection in improving overall language competence. The relevance of the study is due to the growing importance of speech culture in the modern educational environment, where effective communication is a key component of a specialist’s professional training.