Innovation diffusion in higher education

Abstract

In the context of reforming the Armed Forces of Ukraine, there is an urgent need to review the approaches to determining the level of education and qualification of specialists for the organization of the educational process in higher institutions. Increased technological advances, coupled with new learners’ needs and pandemic situation, have created new realities for higher education contexts. The research findings shed light on trends in project management in higher education. Project management for innovations has come to be viewed nowadays as a crucial tool in increasing productivity of organizations and one of the most popular and useful tools for institutions to improve internal operations, respond to opportunities, manage contemporary challenges, and achieve strategic goals. A more in depth understanding of innovation can help administrators inspire innovations, mobilize those looking to innovate, respond to forms of resistance that are likely to emerge, and oversee the innovation diffusion process. A discussion of the following topics is meant to facilitate that understanding: impetuses for innovation, characteristics of language programs that stimulate or hinder innovation, and paths to successful innovation diffusion. The article concludes suggestions that are meant to guide language program administrators in their efforts to promote successful innovation while they simultaneously juggle the multifaceted demands of their administrative position in higher education institutions. Education during the pandemic have exposed education staff to a complicated array of pressures that impact their work methods and ability to function, but have also provided education leaders with opportunities to act autonomously and initiate changes in their institutions. Due to these changes, project management has become a critical tool for institutions and therefore adaptation of this discipline in the context is a matter of the highest priority in current educational systems. More specifically, this article has both theoretical and practical contributions. It promotes knowledge and understanding of project management within the institution’s contexts. Education sector specialists need to work with their existing skill sets for crisis-responsive programming but also need to develop new skills since we are all working under new conditions – specifically driven by social distancing parameters.