CHALLENGE OF DEVELOPING QUALITY PROFILE OF HIGHER EDUCATION IN UKRAINE

Abstract

In the article the challenge of developing a quality profile of the national higher education is analysed, the causes of the problem occurrence and prospects for its solution are clarified. The problem is considered, primarily, in the aspect of finding out the best university practices both as a whole, and on subject areas that is important for competitive development. It is argued that in 1990-2019 the Ukrainian higher education grew quantitatively and chaotically with a simultaneous loss of competitive quality. As a result, the country has a fragmented and dispersed, over-duplicated, profile-inadequate, institutionally and resource-weak, researchpoor, and ultimately insufficiently capable to carry out its mission network of higher education institutions. Therefore, according to the ARWU rating, Ukraine is identified as a white spot in Europe, which does not fall into the list of 60 countries in the general version and 90 countries in the sectoral (subject) version of this rating. This situation is largely due to the lack of a system of mechanisms for monitoring and evaluation, assurence and improvement the quality of higher education. In contrast to the best practices of progressive countries, Ukraine does not have developed classification, framework, association, and rating mechanisms. Accreditation mechanisms do not cope and in principle cannot cope with the systematic diagnosis and effective motivation of the quality of higher education in the entire range of quality – from the minimum threshold to the breakthrough most perfect. To form a benchmark and justify the way out of the crisis, the best world achievements are considered in detail, Ukraine and USA are compared. Based on the case of the standard Harvard University the determination of the profile of a university quality is illustrated. The definition of the category “higher education quality profile” is given.