Spending of the State Budget of Ukraine on higher education in light of the implementation of medium- term planning

Abstract

Introduction. Achieving the strategic goals of the development of higher education in Ukraine requires improving financial support and improving the management and use of resources of this industry, which is important for the country. The purpose of the research is to determine the problematic aspects of the formation of the State Budget of Ukraine expenditures on higher education in terms of planning their volumes, the connection between current and medium-term budget planning and the practice of applying the program-target method and substantiating the ways to solve existing problems.Research methods. The research used general scientific and special methods of cognition, such as a systematic approach, induction, deduction, logical analysis, synthesis, comparison, generalization.Research results. A number of systemic shortcomings in the formation of the State Budget of Ukraine’s expenditures on higher education were revealed, which consist in the absence of long-term budget planning, the inconsistency of current expenditure planning with medium-term budget planning, and the formal application of the program- target method. Adequate institutional support for medium-term budgetary planning has not been created; specialists responsible for planning the activities of the chief manager of budget funds very often do not have the necessary knowledge and skills. Without a deep justification, the chief manager of funds in the field of higher education defines and structures goals, tasks and performance indicators in strategic and medium-term planning documents. Determining the need for funds is non-transparent and does not involve active interaction of the executive authorities and the branch ministry with civil society institutions. Emphasis is placed on the need to improve the regulatory framework for planning state budget expenditures; coordination of the expenditure planning process with prospective plans for the development of higher education; introduction of medium-term budget planning; the development of democratic traditions of budget planning inherent in a market economy; increasing the transparency of budget expenditure planning. Implementation of the proposed measures will contribute to the formation of sufficient financial support for higher education to solve strategic and current tasks.