Nationalism had an important function in increasing the political participation of the people and creating national unity in England in the 17th century, the United States and France in the 18th century, and Germany in the 19th century. Nationalism, a product of the modern era, is also the source of a paradigm shift that has destroyed empires and continues to exist in nation- states today. In the 21st century, nationalism, which is an ideology that manifests itself in different ways in the meaning world of people living in different parts of the world, is fed by objective and subjective elements that can be considered as the dynamics of the perception of nation. This study basically consists of two parts: theoretical and fieldwork. In the theoretical part of the study, an evaluation was made on the concepts of nation and nationalism. In the second part of the study, which reveals what the objective and subjective elements are that build the nation and nationalism perceptions of Sivas Cumhuriyet University and Dicle University FEAS students, a field research was carried out. The field research part of the study was carried out with quantitative research methods and scanning design. In the aforementioned second part of the study, the reasons for the differentiation of nation and nationalism perceptions of university students in Sivas and Diyarbakır were investigated. Another aim of the study is to determine whether there is a significant difference between the demographic characteristics of the participants and their level of nationalism. The field research part of the study was carried out with quantitative research methods and scanning design, and in this context, a questionnaire form was applied to a total of 388 participants from the two different universities mentioned. The hypotheses determined within the study were tested by making relevant analyzes of the survey data in the SPSS package program. In the field research, a significant relationship was established between the gender, university, department, administrative unit and ideology of the participants and their nationalism levels.