Competitiveness of Higher Education in Ukraine and Certain EuropeanCountries: Empirical Studies on Funding and Academic Attractiveness

Abstract

The article deals with the competitiveness and funding of higher education in certain Eastern andCentral European countries. The development of higher education is characterized by certain shortcomings thatrequire the reform of higher education systems in such countries like Ukraine in the direction of ensuring theinnovative development of education and forms of its funding. The trend of recent years shows an increasedinterest of students in international mobility. Unfortunately, this process can positively and negatively affect theattractiveness and competitiveness of higher education in the home country. An idea of the article is to verifydoes the decline in demand for higher education in home countries could be driven by the level of competitivehigher education system or the costs of education, including the role of government quote on higher education.Secondly, determine the cause-effect relationships between the factors affecting the demand for higher educationin the country and abroad. The results of the research confirm the strong dependence of the competitiveness ofhigher education system on the existing form of its financing (the direction of using funds in favor of developmentcosts and the ratio of funding sources in the studied country) and academic attractiveness.