Formation of Alternative Approaches to the Modern Reform of Higher Education

Abstract

One of the general factors that determined the direction of development and, at the same time, large-scale reform of higher education in many countries of the world was the widespread use of various technologies of new public management (NPM) as modern and popular management tools in public sector. Their application was supported and substantiated by the ideology of the new managerialism, which involves the active use of these technologies, along with stimulating the development of a competitive environment through quasi-market institutional approaches. The success of reforming higher education should be linked with the readiness to overcome these traps by significantly adjusting the vector of strategic changes, which should take into account the peculiarities of the logic of the functioning and reproduction of the professional academic community, involve it in the development of strategies for the development of universities, and the development of approaches to assess the effectiveness of their activities. The emergence of the number of institutional traps, stable self-replicating institutional norms, which generally negatively affect the results of higher education's functioning, are tested as negative side effects of the modern reforms. There are the traps of metrics, budget underfunding, human resources, bureaucratization, informatization and digitalization, and others. The values and expectations of the academic community, the features of the professional activities of its various components should be taken into account.