Premises. It is well known that in the non-profile universities the motivation for engaging in physical activities is different from the motivation of the students in the profile universities where physical education is being taught. Objectives. Our research tried to find out if there is a continuity of the physical activities from the pre-university to the university environment, and what would be the factors that could stimulate the students of the 23 Faculties of the University of Bucharest to practice physical activities. Methods. The study was made on a sample of 160 first and second year students. We studied the stimulating factors for practicing physical activities of the students through the use of a questionnaire adapted from the Perceived Stress Scale (developed by Cohen and Williamson in 1988). This is a self-administered questionnaire that measures the level of stress in everyday life. The scale was developed by the authors based on the transactional approach of stress. Results. The questionnaire revealed an overall positive stimulation of the students for physical activities, and a light perception about stress. The positive stimulation score varied between 0 and 8. The subjects had an average of 5,98±1,67, which is above the medium level of motivation (score 4) and above quartile 3 (score 6). The negative motivation score varied between 0 and maximum 8, with an average of 1,81±1,67. The descriptive statistic for the positive stimulation questionnaire applied to the studied group revealed that 51 % of the students were easily stressed, 47% of the subjects were moderately stressed and for 2% of the subjects, the perception of stress was almost non-existent. Conclusions. The positive stimulation effected by physical education classes is the main factor in attracting a big number of students to take part in physical activities in the pre-university period, and in continuing them in university, even if the practice of physical education in non-profile universities is optional. Our study showed that students manifest an attraction for sports such as aerobic gymnastics, sportive dance, bodybuilding-fitness, football, basket, table tennis and, as an alternative, for mountain-related activities. In the last period we have noticed the fact that students started to realize that, besides the volunteering activities and practical stages related to their future career, physical activity lessons have an important effect on stress reduction/elimination
