The general approaches to the impact made by the non-governmental organizations upon the education and higher education in Ukraine are highlighted in the present paper. Problems of the functioning of civic organizations and their interaction with educational institutions, in particular higher education institutions, on the basis of analysis of the practical experience of cooperation between non-governmental organisations and higher education institutions are under analysis.It is convinced that civil society organizations are a central element of Ukrainian civil society. The non-governmental organization are regarded to be an organization that is not owned, directed by or affiliated to any governmental organization, and operates on a not-for-profit basis. Nowadays, within other spheres, the civil organizations are one of the stakeholders of functioning of Ukrainian education system. Nongovernmental organizations perform their activities in accordance with the proper legal claims for the work of the public associations. The legislative basis for the participation of public organizations in the management of the educational sector in Ukraine was formed gradually, with the adoption of relevant legislative acts. The principal ones are: the Law of Ukraine “On Education” (2017), the Law of Ukraine “On Higher Educatio” (2019) and the Law of Ukraine “On public associations” (2018).Various types of non-governmental organizations that are stakeholders of the educational process in Ukraine are specified, a short description of the proposed types of non-governmental organizations is provided: parents’ associations; public associations of teachers; public associations of the heads of educational institutions; student associations and public associations of experts in education. The activities carried out by expert organizations in the sphere of quality assurance are described as well as their potential for assessing the higher education institutions with the purpose to improving the quality of education.