Reform of Higher Legal Education: Global Issues

Abstract

The main vector of higher legal education development is determined by the general direction of the domestic higher school to join the all-European and world educational space, national and international standards harmonization of higher education in the context of the Bologna process. On the other hand, the rapid development of information technologies has led to the global computerization of society. The result of this phenomenon in the education field is a stable environment formation of developed data processing, information systems modular construction (combination of different architectural types within a single complex). As a result, knowledge building process for skills formation of professional competence is gradually changing the form of its realization. The wellknown learning goals of higher school revealed in such elements as knowledge, understanding and forms of their acquisition are changing. It is no coincidence that the problem for most universities is the fact that education is still more focused on knowledge and skills, rather than on personality development, consciousness formation and self-awareness of a specialist. Unfortunately, such changes do not always have a positive educational trajectory. It should be recognized that educational institutions are no longer the major educational source. Those basic learning goals, the achievement of which is the task of higher school, do not receive appropriate positive reflection in society. High level of knowledge with no skills of its application is the main factor of professional deformation of a graduating student of higher educational institution. This problem is clearly visible in the higher legal education sphere. In recent times, there has been a clear trend toward the transition from qualification to the competence-based model of the specialist. The emphasis in professional training is shifting to socio-personal and general professional competencies. Open statistical sources of the State Employment Service show that among the total number of unemployed persons with higher education who could not find the first job, persons with higher legal education occupy one of the leading places (26%). In early 2019, the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine together with the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine proposed a draft Concept of the Legal Education Reform for public discussion. Among the main problems were a mismatch between the content of legal education and training quality in legal schools with the modern requirements of the labour market and the challenges facing the modern democratic society, global trends in development and tasks of employees' professional activities in various fields. The abovementioned requires a change in the educational paradigm, one of the components of which, in our opinion, should be the transition to educational goals of a different qualitative type in the cognitive sphere, including the formation of applied professional legal skills, critical thinking development and so on. Unfortunately, there is not enough scientific research in this area of narrow thematic nature. No significant attention is paid to the pedagogical problems of lawyers' model formation with their readiness for social interaction. It is important to emphasize that among legal scholars there is no interest in the development and formation of legal pedagogy as a direction in pedagogy of higher education, the subject of which is the didactic peculiarities of the professional competence formation of lawyers. Part of the attention is paid to the professional competence formation among students of higher educational institutions in the legal field by scholars of pedagogical science, in particular, the theory and methods of training and education (according to the fields and educational level). The problem to be solved is the mismatch between the content of legal education and training quality in legal schools with the modern requirements of the labour market and the challenges facing the modern democratic society, global trends in development and tasks of employees' professional activities in various fields, this is due to the insufficient level of theoretical knowledge and practical skills among a significant part of graduating students of law schools, as well as a lack of attention to the formation of a holistic world view among applicants for legal education with an understanding of the social mission, values and importance of legal profession to approve the rule of law in the modern democratic society. The abovementioned requires the updating of educational processes modernization issue in the direction of competency-oriented training formation and professional lawyer education in the light of his/her dialogue and discussion, and language-intensive professional activities. In particular, it is important to develop an approach to the professional training of a future lawyer, which involves the creation of a professional competence formation model of the lawyer, which is based on the organic unity of theoretical, practical, psychophysical training that will provide the professional socialization level engaging a wide range of scholars in the field of pedagogy and law.