UNIVERSITY AUTONOMY IN THE CONTEXT OF OPTIMISING THE NETWORK OF HIGHER EDUCATION INSTITUTIONS

Abstract

The relevance of the article is determined by the importance of strengthening the autonomy of higher education, its ability to really influence the acceleration of Ukraine's recovery and the need to resolve a number of contradictions (between the launched higher education reform and imperfect regulatory, legal and organisational mechanisms for its implementation; public awareness of the inefficiency of the higher education network and the importance of its optimisation, and the insufficient level of awareness of the importance of ensuring democratic and transparent processes by senior education managers). The aim is to analyse the prerequisites, features and prospects for optimising the network of higher education institutions in the context of implementing the right of universities to autonomy for accelerating Ukraine's recovery. Methods: theoretical analysis of official, statistical, scientific and journalistic sources – to study the functioning peculiarities of the higher education network in Ukraine and the development of their autonomy; comparison and generalisation – to identify factors that hinder the autonomy development of Ukrainian higher education institutions and conditions that facilitate it. Results: the dynamics of the higher education institutions network expansion and their contingent is studied; the peculiarities of acquiring the "national" status by higher education institutions are analysed; the factors of inhibition of the university autonomy development in Ukraine are identified; the conclusions of Ukrainian scientists on creating conditions for ensuring the process effectiveness of the higher education institutions optimisation are summarised. Conclusions: the autonomy development of higher education institutions in Ukraine is hampered by an imperfect regulatory framework, non-state actions of educational managers at the institutional and national levels, and an unbalanced national education system; uncontrolled expansion of the higher education institutions network has disrupted the balance of the national education system (decline in vocational education, deterioration in the quality of higher education); the autonomy of higher education institutions in the context of an unbalanced national education system, weakened links with regional labour markets, and underdeveloped public-private partnerships cannot become a means of a restorative breakthrough for the Ukrainian education system to ensure Ukraine's post-war recovery; the need to optimise the network of higher education institutions is obvious and urgent, but it is undemocratic and non-transparent, which provokes unhealthy sentiments among the scientific and pedagogical community and undermines the authority of higher education in Ukrainian society; the process of optimising the network of higher education institutions needs to be regulated (development of relevant regulations, methodological recommendations, clear algorithm), taking into account the achievements of Ukrainian scientists and European experience.