Conceptual bases of adaptation of Ukraine’s higher education to the standards of education quality of the European area

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Conceptual bases of adaptation of Ukraine's higher education to the standards of education quality of the European area

Head of the Scientific and Research Laboratory of Educology, Borys Grinchenko Kyiv University, 13-b Tymoshenko Str., 04212 Kyiv, Ukraine

Батечко Нина. Концептуальные основы адаптации высшего образования Украины к європейским стандартам качества образования

В статье определены концептуальные основы адаптации украинского высшего образования к Стандартам и рекомендациям по обеспечению качества в Европейском пространстве высшего образования, выяснена роль Болонской декларации в процессе обеспечения качества высшего образования в Европе.

Определены концептуальные основы и сущность Стандартов и рекомендаций по обеспечению качества в Европейском пространстве высшего образования. Охарактеризованы украинские реалии адаптации высшей школы Украины к европейским стандартам качества образования.

Ключевые слова: адаптация высшего образования к европейским образовательным стандартам образования; обеспечение качества высшего образования; стандарты качества высшего образования.

Батечко Ніна. Концептуальні засади адаптації вищої освіти України до європейських стандартів якості освіти

У статті визначено концептуальні засади адаптації української вищої освіти до Стандартів і рекомендацій із забезпечення якості в Європейському просторі вищої освіти; з'ясовано роль Болонської декларації в процесі забезпечення якості вищої освіти в Європі; охарактеризовано європейські стратегічні документи щодо створення Європейського простору вищої освіти і стандартів забезпечення якості вищої освіти.

Визначено концептуальні засади та сутність Стандартів і рекомендацій із забезпечення якості в Європейському просторі вищої освіти. Охарактеризовано українські реалії адаптації вищої школи України до європейських освітніх стандартів якості. Визначені основні відмінності у формуванні української та європейської систем забезпечення якості у вищій школі. Виявлене протиріччя між європейським вектором розвитку системи забезпечення якості вищої освіти в Україні, закріпленим у нормативно-правових актах України, і реальним станом закритої, командно-адміністративної вищої освіти, якість якої не задовольняє вітчизняних стейкхолдерів. Визначено основні пріоритетні управлінські кроки, що сприяли б прискоренню адаптації національної системи вищої освіти до європейських освітніх стандартів якості, а також необхідність формування ціннісних орієнтацій усіх учасників освітнього процесу на «культуру якості освіти». З'ясовано що адаптація системи вищої освіти України до європейських стандартів якості потребує підтримки як теоретичних досліджень учених в освітній галузі, так і практичних кроків освітян, що безпосередньо реалізують державну освітню політику на місцевому рівні.

Ключові слова: адаптація вищої освіти до європейських освітніх стандартів освіти; забезпечення якості вищої освіти; стандарти якості вищої освіти.

Introduction. The problem of ensuring the quality of education, in the current conditions of reforming the educational sphere, is more relevant than ever. After all, the pace (slow and accelerated) and the nature (raw-extensive or intensively-innovative) of the country's development, its economy, internal and external social relations depend on it (Zakharchenko et al., 2014, p. 4). In view of this, Ukraine's accession to the Bologna Process, integration into the European higher education and research areas, the adoption of the Laws of Ukraine «On Higher Education» (2014),

«On Education» (2017) are intended to change the national higher education in the direction of the European educational standards adaption.

It should be noted that the powerful impetus for the adoption of common quality standards in higher education was the creation and expansion of the European Union, the high degree of integration of the economy and labor markets in the world. Quality standards are widely used to determine the quality of services to meet the needs of customers and employers who are the main customers of the «product» of higher education.

In turn, the student community, as a customer of educational services, also feels the need for higher standards of education quality, thereby understanding their «suitability» for practical use (International Quality Assurance Systems, 2011, p. 2). ukrainian education European bologna

Indeed, the Bologna Declaration has become a widespread instrument of quality assurance, but the quality assurance system in Europe had arisen long before the Bologna agreements were adopted under the pressure of the needs of society. The adoption of the Lisbon Convention «On Recognition...» in 1997, based on the mutual recognition of qualifications and mutual trust between higher education systems, was a strong impetus to the establishment of national quality assurance systems. From that time onwards, the improvement of quality, the demand for higher education and the establishment of a reliable quality assurance system is a high priority for all countries of the European Higher Education Area.

If we look further, promoting European cooperation in ensuring the quality of higher education, developing principles, criteria for further development of the quality assurance system, certification of national quality assurance systems are the issues that were on the agenda of the meeting of European ministers in Prague «Towards the European Higher Education Area» (2001) and Berlin «Realizing the European Higher Education Area» (2003). The communique of the conference of European Ministers of Education (Bergen, 2005) «The European Higher Education Area - Achieving the Goals» states such dimensions of the quality of education: improving the quality of the activities of higher education institutions by introducing internal quality preservation mechanisms, while maintaining links with the external quality assurance system, introducing a model of expert evaluation of quality assurance agencies at the national level; development of cooperation with national agencies in order to ensure the quality of education.

The communique of the conference of Ministers of the European countries responsible for higher education «Towards a European Higher Education Area: Answers to the Challenges of Globalization» (London, 2007) focuses on progressive developments regarding the issue of international cooperation between quality assurance agencies, mutual recognition accreditations.

It should be noted that further in the Budapest-Vienna Declaration on the European Higher Education Area (2010) and the Bucharest Communique (2012), attention to the issue of higher education quality was enhanced greatly.

The ENQA (European Quality Assurance Quality Assurance in Higher Education) program, which was established in 2000, plays an extremely important role in ensuring the quality of higher education in the European educational area, in particular in promotion of cooperation and interplay between education quality assurance agencies.

The mission of the ENQA is to ensure the transparency and informativeness of the results of the evaluation of the quality of the activities of higher education institutions and curricula. Among the tasks of the association, it is worth pointing out the increase of trust and recognition of the results of the assessment, the recognition of qualifications and periods of training, and the granting of authorization to registered quality assurance agencies to work throughout the European Higher Education Area, and higher education institutions to choose an evaluation agency (An Overview of External Quality, 2014).

It is worth paying attention to the activities of the European Higher Education Quality Assurance Register (EQAR), created in 2008 to enhance the transparency of quality assurance in higher education throughout Europe. The organization provides reliable information about quality assurance agencies operating in Europe, thus maintaining the confidence of those quality assurance agencies who wish to work in the European higher education area. The purpose of the register is to provide open access to objective information about reliable quality assurance agencies operating in accordance with the ESG (London Communique, 2007) for all the interested parties and the public at large.

The UNESCO also plays an important role in ensuring the quality of higher education. According to the main documents of the organization the access to basic education of high quality is an inalienable human right. The assessment of taking this right into account by the states involves analysis of access to quality education, which was done, for example in the UNESCO and the UNESCO Institute for Statistics publications «Global Education Digest 2003: Comparing Education Statistics Across the World», where educational systems and trends of development by the main indicators, structured according to the levels of education (pre-school, primary, secondary, higher education) are analyzed (Victorov, 2005, p. 25).

European practice in evaluating the quality of education is characterized by the creation of specialized accreditation agencies - public organizations involved in the development of tools and methods for assessing quality, as well as checking the quality of education. The agencies' activities focus mainly on quality assessment and quality assurance, including accreditation of higher education institutions and educational programs, as well as monitoring and consulting in selected elements and aspects of educational activities, such as e-learning, research efficiency, educational services, quality management systems (Trygub, 2016, p. 68).

It is worthwhile noting that the networks of information centers that cover all the countries of Europe, Israel, Canada, the United States and New Zealand also play an important role in ensuring the quality of education in the European Union. They provide information on higher education systems of the EU Member States and European accreditation agencies. The European Information Centers Network (ENIC) consists of national information centers of the states-countries and is part of the European Cultural Convention or the UNESCO. It should be noted that the European Network works closely with the Network of National Academic Recognition Information Centers (NARIC), which aims to improve the academic recognition of diplomas and training periods in the EU Member States, the European Economic Area countries and Turkey.

The Standards and recommendations for quality assurance in the European higher education area: conceptual foundations. The adoption of the Standards and Guidelines for Quality Assurance in the European Higher Education Area (ESG) in Berlin in 2005 became a milestone that enabled a new level of quality assurance in higher education in Europe.

The Budapest Communique (Bucharest, Romania, April 26-27, 2013) stated that in order to make the most of our potential use: the consolidation of the European Higher Education area, it is worth developing an offer with the relevant stakeholders to update the 2015 ESG version.

The ESG at the current stage of development of the European educational space serve as a basis not only for the development of the system of quality assurance of higher education at the institutional, national and European levels, but also as a tool for recognition of such sanctions at the European level (Development of the system of quality assurance in higher education in Ukraine, 2015, p. 10)

The updated version of the ESG, approved by the Bologna Process Support Group in September 2014, was introduced at the Ministerial Conference on May 15, 2015, which took place in Yerevan, Armenia. The new version of ESG was more understandable, more clearly tied to the learning process and teaching, in particular with regard to internal quality assurance, identified the link between quality assurance and other Bologna process tools that were introduced after 2005, including the framework qualifications and learning outcomes.

The document identified a list of European standards for quality assurance in higher education, consisting of:

* External quality assurance in higher education;

* Quality assurance in the activities of (private or state) external quality assurance agencies;

* Internal quality assurance in higher education institutions (Standards and Guidelines for Quality Assuranceinthe European Higher Education Area).

The proposed new version of the standards was agreed with all involved organizations on how to promote the quality of education in the European higher education area, in particular: the European Association for the Quality of Higher Education (ENQA), the European Union of Students (ESU), the Association of European Universities (EUA), the European Association of Bodies Higher Education (EURASHE), together with Confederation of European Business «Business Europe», European Register of Quality Assurance in Higher Education International Education (EQAR).

In accordance with the Standards and Recommendations for Quality Assurance in the European higher education area, the procedure for assessing the quality of higher education consists of the following stages: internal quality control as a starting point; preparation of a self-assessment report by a higher education institution; visiting a higher education institution by an external attestation commission, which includes teachers, other employees of educational establishments, students; preparation of the report by the external attestation commission; inspection goal assessment. The quality assessment procedure is based on the internal mechanisms of assessment and quality assurance of a higher education institution, which testifies to the autonomy and autonomy of the university (Sikorsky, 2015, p. 29).

Ukrainian realities on the adaptation of European standards of quality of education. Referring to those historical moments, namely in 2005, when Ukraine joined the Bologna process, the eager mood of educators and all indifferent Ukrainians to the future of national education is being recalled. Since then, more than ten years have passed. Is the Ukrainian community satisfied with its higher education, competitiveness of our graduates in the labor market? Analyzing the priorities of our youth in favor of foreign higher education institutions and not the best positions of the Ukrainian universities in world academic ratings, we can give a negative answer (Batechko, 2017, p. 15).

The quality of the Ukrainian higher education, which is one of the main requirements of the Bologna Declaration, is currently not satisfactory among young people, their parents or employers. It should be noted that the quality of higher education is a basic requirement that ensures the responsibility of the university, its credibility, labor market relevance, mobility and the compatibility of qualifications. In addition, the qualitative training of specialists allows them to be competitive at the international level (Sikorsky, 2016, p. 54).

It is worthwhile noting that the Law of Ukraine «On Higher Education» (2014), for the first time in the practice of the Ukrainian higher education, has regulated the national system of quality assurance of education that meets the Standards and recommendations for quality assurance in the European higher education area.

The implementation of this law provides for the introduction of a fundamentally new model of measurable, comparable, credible and competitive quality of higher education based on a competent approach and an appropriate culture of continuous improvement of the quality of higher education on the principles independency, objectivity and transparency, trust and subsidiarity, partnership and collegial responsibility (Development of the Quality Assurance System for Higher Education in Ukraine: Information and Analytical Review, 2015, p. 36).

Conceptually new concepts and tools are being introduced into the practice of higher education. As for the instruments, this is the National Qualifications Framework, the European Credit Transfer and Accumulation System, the qualifications of the levels, areas of knowledge and specialties of higher education, standards of educational activity and standards of higher education, licensing (educational activities) and accreditation (educational activities), internal and external quality assurance and support of the National Agency for Quality Assurance in Higher Education and independent institutions for the assessment and quality assurance of higher education. With regard to new concepts, they are: educational programs, degrees (as qualifications), competencies, learning outcomes, credits (Development of the system of quality assurance in higher education of Ukraine: information and analytical review, 2015, p. 36).

In the updated Law of Ukraine «On Higher Education» the notion of quality of education is interpreted as the «level» of the knowledge, skills, abilities and other competences acquired by a person that reflects his or her competence in accordance with the standards of higher education» (Law of Ukraine «On Higher Education», Article 1). It should be noted that discussions in the scientific circles about the correctness of the formulated notion are still relevant. In one of the paragraphs of Art 16 of the Law it is stated that the system of external quality assurance of educational activities of higher educational establishments and the quality of higher education presupposes the implementation of such procedures and measures as, in particular, «ensuring the availability of published criteria of decision-making in accordance with the standards and recommendations of quality assurance in the European Higher Education Area» as well as in paragraph 2 of Art. 23 it is emphasized: «Independent institutions for the assessment and quality assurance of higher education shall cooperate with the European Association for the Quality Assurance of Higher Education, in particular with a view to introducing European standards and recommendations for improving the quality of higher education in Ukraine» (Law on Higher Education, 2014, Art.: 16; 23).

The state contributes to the introduction of a quality assurance mechanism for higher education in order to create the necessary mutual trust, harmonize the systems for assessing the quality of higher education in Ukraine and the European higher education area (Law of Ukraine «On Higher Education», Article 74).

According to the Law, the standard of educational activity is understood as a set of minimum requirements for personnel, educational, methodological, material and technical and information provision of the educational process of a higher educational establishment and a scientific institution. The standard of higher education is a set of requirements for the content and results of educational activities of higher educational establishments and institutions for each level of higher education within each specialty (Law of Ukraine «On Higher Education», Article 9).

The Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine is forming the Scientific and Methodological Council, which, with the participation of the National Quality Assurance Agency (methodology, methodological recommendations for the development of standards for educational activities and higher education standards, as well as scientific and methodological commissions that develop standards for educational activities and standards higher education.

The standards of educational activity, developed by the scientific and methodological commissions, are approved by the Ministry of Education and Science in agreement with the National Agency for the Quality Assurance of Higher Education for each level of higher education within each specialty.

All this was introduced at the legislative level in 2014 by the Law of Ukraine «On Higher Education», the implementation of which began in September 2016. Despite the positive developments that have taken place in the issue of ensuring the quality of higher education since that time, the realities of modern development of higher education in Ukraine testify to its closed nature. Thus, in particular, quality requirements are formulated and verified mainly by profile ministries (by the performers, not real customers of educational services), which do not always correlate with the real needs of the open market. And at the same time, important players to guide the participants in the educational process - business, students, national and international non-governmental organizations, etc. - do not participate (even indirectly) in the quality assurance procedures, although formally such participation is provided. The main task of educational institutions is not increasing their own quality and efficiency, but the success of formal reporting to the state control bodies (Concept of Quality Assurance in Higher Education, 2014).

Hence, we can conclude that the closed nature of the higher education system of Ukraine encourages the fact that the process of quality assurance of education remains closed and does not meet the demands of society. Why is this happening and how to get out of this situation? In our opinion, it is above all necessary to overcome the closure of the sphere of higher education, which in fact it was characteristic of the Soviet era.

The modernization of higher education in Ukraine, in the context of overcoming the closed nature of functioning, actualizes the study of the experience of those European countries that have made some progress in adapting their educational systems to the modern European model, educational quality standards, and successfully using new principles and methods in this area.

Taking into account the dramatic changes that have taken place in the education of European countries in the process of reforms and what is happening at the moment in the national system of higher education, it will be possible to identify the main differences in the formation of the

Ukrainian system of quality of higher education and Europeanism, to take positive experience and implement it in the Ukrainian realities. Let us follow these differences, considering the national system that is closed one, and European which is non-linear and open (Table 1).

Table 1