The analysis of higher education market in Ukraine

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The analysis of higher education market in Ukraine

Ivanna Huzii¹, Lan Hongxia Ivanna Huzii, Doctor of Philosophy, Assistant Professor of the Department of Pedagogy and Innovative Education, Lviv Polytechnic National University, Lan Hongxia, the student of the second (Master's) level of higher education, of the Department of Pedagogy and Innovative Education, Lviv Polytechnic National University,

Annotation. The article is dedicated to the topical problem of higher education - the analysis of higher education market development in Ukraine in the context of international higher education space. The analysis of research literature demonstrates, that the problem of higher education market development in the 21^st century is studies by researchers all over the world. Among the most topical issues there are the following: the influence of globalization on the higher education market development; the influence of modern international trend on the development of higher education market; innovations in higher education of Ukraine; the process of Ukrainian higher education reforming; specialists training and their competence development, etc. Having analyzed the experience of Ukraine the authors conclude that on the path of reforming higher education, a significant number of barriers arise. Among them there are internal problems related to the implementation of the main functions of higher educational institutions, increasing the competitiveness of higher educational institutions, the level and quality of management of higher educational institutions, a change in the conditions in which higher educational institutions function. In the educational sphere, a market of services has developed, which, like any market, is characterized by rivalry and competition. Therefore, today in Ukraine, the market of educational services is not ready to fully satisfy the demand of employers in personnel and respond promptly to changes in their needs. The presence of a professional and qualification imbalance between the needs of the labour market and the training of personnel by higher educational institutions causes significant unproductive spending of public and personal funds of citizens, as well as moral losses of society. The lack of effective marketing of the market of educational services leads to the fact that society does not know how many and which specialists are actually needed to ensure the reproduction process. Therefore, there is an urgent need to adjust the relations between the subjects of the educational services market with the aim of their regulation.

Keywords: higher education, higher education market, development trends, Ukraine, barriers of higher education market development, educational services.

Аналіз ринку вищої освіти в Україні

problems higher education qualitative educational services ukraine

Introduction

A university is a unique social institution which activity is aimed at the creation, development, and implementation of all four mentioned components. In view of such considerations, it becomes clear the attention to the reform of the higher education system, which all developed countries of the world have shown during the last decades. Moreover, implementation of educational reforms has become a priority of regional and international policy.

Such fundamental global trends in the development of higher education as globalization, internationalization, massification, and regionalization influence the development higher education market in various countries. The peculiarities of these processes are due to a large extent to the transformation of higher education into a productive force on which the competitiveness of individual countries and geopolitical regions as a whole depends. Two leading strategies for the modernization of European higher education, the Bologna Process, and the Lisbon Strategy of the EU accompany this process.

The current stage of the evolution of world civilization is accompanied by significant social transformations in the world and is defined as the transition from an industrial society to an information society, the emergence of which is associated with the information revolution and the development of information technologies. In recent years, informatization as a phenomenon of social interaction between state institutions and society is one of the priority areas of Ukrainian policy in the field of information dissemination and implementation of information technologies. Therefore, the current stage of the development of Ukrainian society can also be considered informative.

The analysis of recent research and publications. The analysis of research literature demonstrates, that the problem of higher education market development in the 21^st century is studies by researchers all over the world. Among the most topical issues there are the following: the influence of globalisation on the higher education market development (M. Abelha, S. Fernandes, D. Mesquita, F. Seabra and A. Ferreira-Oliveira [2], O. Gomilko, D. Svyrydenko and S. Terepyshchyi [5], O. Oseredchuk, M. Mykhailichenko, N. Rokosovyk, O. Komar, V. Bielikova, O. Plakhotnik and O. Kuchai [11]); the influence of modern international trend on the development oh higher education market (K. Kraus, N. Kraus, P. Nikiforov, G. Pochenchuk and I. Babukh [8], N. Lazarenko and V. Kaplinski [9], I. Yuryeva [14]); innovations in higher education of Ukraine (S. Atamanyuk, O. Semenikhina and I. Shyshenko [3], O. Erfort, I. Erfort and L. Zbarazskaya [4], G. Klimova [6], B. Kofman, I. Kurovska and I. Yakaitis [7], L. Marom O. Oseredchuk, M. Mykhailichenko, N., Rokosovyk, O. Komar, V. Bielikova, O. Plakhotnik and O. Kuchai [10], S. Vavreniuk [13]); the process of Ukrainian higher education reforming (V. Shevchenko [12], O. Yuzyk, S. Mazaikina, Y. Bilanych and M. Yuzyk [15], M. Zagirnyak, S. Serhiienko and V. Kostin [16]); specialists training and their competence development (M. Abelha, S. Fernandes, D. Mesquita, F. Seabra and A. Ferreira-Oliveira [1], V. Zinchenko, M. Boichenko and M. Popovych [17]), etc.

The formulation of article purpose. The purpose of our article is defined as follows: to analyse and characterise the higher education market in Ukraine in the context of international higher education space.

Results

The strategic tasks of reforming higher education in Ukraine are the transformation of quantitative indicators of educational services into qualitative indicators, which should be based on the following principles:

- the national idea of higher education, the content of which is the preservation and multiplication of national educational traditions;

- the development of higher education should be subject to the laws of the market economy, i.e. the law of division of labour, the law of variability of labour and the law of competition, since the economic sphere is extremely important in shaping the logic of social development;

- the development of higher education should be considered in the context of trends in the development of world educational systems, including European. In particular, to bring the legislative and normative-legal basis of higher education of Ukraine to global requirements, accordingly structure the system of higher education and its components, organize the list of specialties, revise the content of higher education; ensure informatization of the educational process and access to international information systems.

The higher education institution needs to focus not only on market specialties, but also to fill the content of education with the latest materials, introduce modern learning technologies with a high level of informatization of the educational process, and establish cooperation with personnel customers.

On the path of reforming higher education in European countries, a significant number of barriers arise, which can be divided into four groups:

- internal problems related to the implementation of the main functions of higher educational institutions (conducting scientific research, organizing the educational process, effective methodological support);

- increasing the competitiveness of higher educational institutions;

- the level and quality of management of higher educational institutions;

- a change in the conditions in which higher educational institutions function (financial constraints, society's need for continuous education, a decrease in the number of entrants in European countries) (see Fig. 1).

These problems encourage European countries to find new approaches, create a new policy and legislative framework in the field of higher education. Being involved in the European space of higher education, Ukraine should also take into account the fact that the development of independent relations with foreign scientific and educational centers by large universities, the granting of licenses to their experimental basic educational programs often contradicts the state standards of higher education in force in Ukraine, and does not contribute to the creation of a single educational space of the country.

At the same time, the outflow of those specialists who are involved in such programs is stimulated. The integration of Ukrainian higher education into the European educational space is associated with problems, the solution of which can be seen in the reform of the personnel training system in accordance with international requirements. In the conditions of growing volumes of information from many fields of science, technology and technology, drastic changes in the social sphere, putting forward high professional requirements for specialists, it is necessary to intensify the training process, to create conditions for training highly qualified specialists, using the latest technologies and training methods.

Fig. 1. The main barriers in reforming higher education in the XXI^st century

In the educational sphere, a market of services has developed, which, like any market, is characterized by rivalry and competition. Today, we need new approaches to the organization of higher education institutions, flexible management, vision of prospects.

The results of the analysis of the state and development of the field of education indicate the presence of current world and their specific national features in Ukraine. Thus, the main global trend is a change in conceptual approaches regarding the place of education in the structure of national economy and rethinking its role in ensuring economic development. A human being is recognized as the highest social value, which requires the creation of a new model of his education. Education ceases to be a type of non-productive consumption, and becomes an "investment in human capital", which brings economic (increase in GDP) and social (decrease in unemployment, poverty, crime, etc.) benefits. So, the growth of the educational level stimulates economic growth, and the development of education is recognized as the basis of social progress. In Ukraine, as in industrially developed countries, this issue is given full attention at the national and regional level.

Since the beginning of the XXI^st century, market relations in Ukraine began to be implemented in almost all areas of the economy and social life, in particular, they had a significant impact on the activities of the education system. At this time, a specific market began to form - the market of educational services, since the educational sphere covers the widest spectrum of socio-economic processes and phenomena, it concentrates and intersects a variety of values, interests and needs characteristic of the modern stage of social development.

The market of educational services in Ukraine is developing at a rapid pace and is characterized, first of all, by the opening of new higher educational institutions, including private ones, the growth of the number of students, the diversification of sources of funding of educational institutions, etc.

This requires a scientific understanding of the educational process, interpretation of its essence, directions and perspectives of functioning and development. The rapid development of this market necessitates a detailed study of the trends in its functioning, the development of directions for its reform on this basis, which would adequately and effectively meet the challenges of the modern economy. The analysis of the process of its formation and formation of the structure has both theoretical and practical significance, first of all, for determining the prospects and strategic directions of its development, developing a set of measures for its regulation.

At the current stage of development, the market of educational services is a large multisectoral economic environment where significant elements of national wealth are created - knowledge, intellectual development, abilities, skills of individuals who can potentially contribute to the further development of the country.

In this capacity, the results of the educational services market act as investments in production. The provision of educational services in the pre-market period was exclusively a state monopoly and was significantly different from its current state. The formation of the modern system of higher education took place in the conditions of the transition from a command-administrative economy to a market one.

At the first stage of this transformation, higher educational institutions carried out their activities, absorbing the essential features of both systems - the market mechanism of management had not yet been established, and management lagged behind the need to implement a new regulatory and legal framework. In connection with the development of market relations, there was a need for new personnel, which were needed to ensure the functioning of many market segments. This created prerequisites for a decrease in the quality of scientific and pedagogical workers, who had to be retrained to train such personnel, in particular, to teach new academic disciplines. In such conditions, the main task of many universities was not to improve educational programs and increase intellectual capital, but to ensure the former quality level of teaching.

A significant part of the problems of higher education functioning, which arose in the conditions of the transition to market relations, has not been solved until now. Today, the following negative trends are characteristic of Ukrainian higher education: a decrease in the level of the educational process, which leads to low qualifications of graduates; a large number of higher educational institutions, many of which do not provide adequate quality of education; imbalance in the market of educational services between the demand and supply of graduates with higher education; a steady trend towards mass education along with the deterioration of the qualification and age structure of employment; the imperfection of the state's financial policy regarding the financing of universities, which does not take into account their rating; lack of modern material and technical base of higher educational institutions; the presence of barriers between the scientific developments of teachers, students, graduate students, and their implementation in production; low level of remuneration in higher educational institutions, which reduces the level of motivation of teachers; a significant reduction of state-financed study places; the advantage of private higher education institutions in comparison with public ones in terms of price policy in tuition fees.

The motivation of students as the main consumers of educational services is important in the education system. While studying at universities, young people and strive to ensure their own livelihood, maintain a stable and dignified standard of living, and realize their intellectual and life potential.

The main criteria on which the entrant relies while choosing a higher educational institution and specialty are the following: assessment of one's own abilities, rating of the university; demand for the specialty; quality of teaching and qualification of the teaching staff; employment statistics of university graduates; convenient location of educational buildings, proximity to the place of residence; reviews about the university in mass media and the Internet (see Fig. 2).

Fig. 2. The factors which influence the entrants' choice of university in Ukraine

However, the main lever of influence is the material factor: the ratio of input costs and output effect. The question that remains key for most entrants is determining the instrumental value of higher education: what knowledge can be converted into income? In this case, several problems arise:

- the problem of forecasting demand;

- the problem of predicting trends;

- the problem of excessive credit of trust.

The decision to choose a specialty is made on the basis of labour market monitoring. The analysis conducted by households is shallow and based on the following criteria: labor market capacity; the availability of an offer; general reputation of the specialty; the status and prestige of a specialist.

The starting data for analytics are publications in mass media. Moreover, households have a habit of considering these reports to be true and do not question them. Analysis of statistical data is practically excluded.

When forming a promotion strategy, universities rely mainly on the behaviour of the contact audience, the majority of which are potential students. Therefore, the offers of universities lag behind the current needs of the national market.

When choosing a higher education institution, many entrants rely on the ratings of institutions of higher education. The rating depends significantly on the success and demand of graduates. Leading universities attract the best entrants who are distinguished by high intelligence, diligence and focus on results. It turns out a kind of conveyor that works to increase the authority of a particular educational institution. As a result, due to the achievements of its students and graduates, the educational institution increases its potential. However, in view of this, higher education is turning into a mass phenomenon, and the quality of students is decreasing.

In addition, some students studying on a contract basis believe that the tuition fee can compensate for the lack of performance. The need to study, analyse and take into account by universities trends and patterns of demand for specialists with higher education in the labour market is also topical. Market relations are developing rapidly. Almost every year, new interdisciplinary directions appear, and sometimes even entire industries. It is not difficult to anticipate new proposals if the higher education institution conducts a full-fledged systematic study of the needs of employers.

But in some cases, the reaction of the university management significantly lags behind the market trends. Such conservatism is partly due to the lack of incentives for prompt response, in connection with which the debate about the need for commercialization of higher education is renewed under the condition of reducing state funding. The transition to self-sufficiency will lead to higher management performance and the ability to generate effective management decisions.

The development of the educational services market makes the problem of using marketing elements in the management of an educational institution more and more urgent. This is due to the fact that one of the most important realities of the development of modern higher education is the growth of the number of non-state educational institutions and, as an alternative to this, an increase in the share of commercial admission of students to state universities. The lack of effective marketing of the market of educational services causes a lack of information about the number of workers needed to ensure the reproduction process.

Among all the variety of modern trends in the development of the educational sphere, the main ones should be called the following:

- the determining role of education in the formation of the knowledge economy (as a generator and transmitter of knowledge and information);

- diversification of funding sources (from mainly state funding to a wide range of incomes and increasing the efficiency of spending these funds);

- changing the requirements for the content, methods and forms of the educational process (competence-based approach);

- internationalization of education (the need for unification of educational content, recognition of diplomas);

- change in organizational forms of educational activity (concentration, centralization, diversification: parallel education, network universities);

- globalization of the educational services market (increasing the number of foreign students, cross-border education).

The rapid development of information and communication technologies, their total entry into human life inevitably creates new challenges and, at the same time, opens horizons of new opportunities for the educational sector. Accordingly, today Ukraine faces the need to master new approaches to the organization of the educational system in the light of the requirements caused by the current state of human development: globalization, informatization, acceleration of the pace of life.

Higher educational institutions in Ukraine are increasingly becoming autonomous, therefore they must independently acquire competitive advantages, determine the prospects for their further development, ways to improve financing, update the material and technical base, further expand the innovative direction of scientific research, etc.

One of the newest trends in the development of Ukrainian higher education, primarily for engineering and technical specialties, is the introduction of dual education. Dual education - a 50/50 method of learning, when theory at a university and practical work is combined, originated in Germany in the 1970s. In order to obtain theoretical knowledge, it is enough for a student to visit a university 1-2 days a week, as well as to work independently. The rest of the training is work at the enterprise. According to the principles of dual education, entrepreneurs can create a schedule of classes, take extra subjects, and even organise exams. They also pay a stipend close to the salary. Thus, young professionals do not need to find a compromise between studying and earning.

In recent years, there has been an increase in demand for higher education services in Ukraine. This trend is determined by the economic effect caused by new knowledge. That is, the level of qualification of the employee, his intellectual abilities largely determine the competitiveness of not only the employee in the labour market, but also the company and the economy as a whole.

In addition, education affects the general level of culture, health and well-being of the country's citizens, and the stability of society. In Ukraine, the information provided by statistics does not allow studying the market of educational services in all its diversity. With the development of market relations, the educational needs of a person expand, and their structure changes.

To ensure the proper level of training of specialists, the state must ensure a balance between state and non-state systems of higher education, bring the number of educational institutions and their types into line with regional needs, determine the content of education that is adequate to the demands of the socio-economic environment and the interests of society, ensure continuity in education, to develop and implement such learning technologies that will ensure the maximum realization of the needs of the individual and take into account his individual characteristics.

In turn, education statistics should provide state administration bodies at all organizational levels with the necessary statistical information to ensure that they make informed management decisions regarding education in general and the market of educational services in particular.

One of the most important features of educational services of higher education at the current stage is their high intellectuality, which causes increased complexity of knowledge that students must not only learn in the process of learning, but also be able to apply in practice. There are also changes in the structure of the provision of educational services. International (transnational) educational programs and various forms of distance education are gaining more and more development.

Therefore, today in Ukraine, the market of educational services is not ready to fully satisfy the demand of employers in personnel and respond promptly to changes in their needs. The presence of a professional and qualification imbalance between the needs of the labour market and the training of personnel by higher educational institutions causes significant unproductive spending of public and personal funds of citizens, as well as moral losses of society. The lack of effective marketing of the market of educational services leads to the fact that society does not know how many and which specialists are actually needed to ensure the reproduction process. Therefore, there is an urgent need to adjust the relations between the subjects of the educational services market with the aim of their regulation.

Conclusions

Having analysed the experience of Ukraine we conclude that on the path of reforming higher education, a significant number of barriers arise. Among them there are internal problems related to the implementation of the main functions of higher educational institutions, increasing the competitiveness of higher educational institutions, the level and quality of management of higher educational institutions, a change in the conditions in which higher educational institutions function.

In the educational sphere, a market of services has developed, which, like any market, is characterized by rivalry and competition.

Since the beginning of the XXI^st century, market relations in Ukraine began to be implemented in almost all areas of the economy and social life, in particular, they had a significant impact on the activities of the education system. The market of educational services in Ukraine is developing at a rapid pace and is characterized, first of all, by the opening of new higher educational institutions, including private ones, the growth of the number of students, the diversification of sources of funding of educational institutions, etc.

Among the negative trends which characterize the experience of Ukrainian higher education there are a decrease in the level of the educational process, which leads to low qualifications of graduates; a large number of higher educational institutions, many of which do not provide adequate quality of education; imbalance in the market of educational services between the demand and supply of graduates with higher education; a steady trend towards mass education along with the deterioration of the qualification and age structure of employment; the imperfection of the state's financial policy regarding the financing of universities, which does not take into account their rating; lack of modern material and technical base of higher educational institutions; the presence of barriers between the scientific developments of teachers, students, graduate students, and their implementation in production; low level of remuneration in higher educational institutions, which reduces the level of motivation of teachers; a significant reduction of state-financed study places; the advantage of private higher education institutions in comparison with public ones in terms of price policy in tuition fees.

The main criteria on which the entrant relies while choosing a higher educational institution and specialty are determined: assessment of one's own abilities, rating of the university; demand for the specialty; quality of teaching and qualification of the teaching staff; employment statistics of university graduates; convenient location of educational buildings, proximity to the place of residence; reviews about the university in mass media and the Internet.

Therefore, today in Ukraine, the market of educational services is not ready to fully satisfy the demand of employers in personnel and respond promptly to changes in their needs. The presence of a professional and qualification imbalance between the needs of the labour market and the training of personnel by higher educational institutions causes significant unproductive spending of public and personal funds of citizens, as well as moral losses of society. The lack of effective marketing of the market of educational services leads to the fact that society does not know how many and which specialists are actually needed to ensure the reproduction process. Therefore, there is an urgent need to adjust the relations between the subjects of the educational services market with the aim of their regulation.

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