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DOI: https://doi.org/10.30525/2256-0742/2021-7-5-104-113
WAYS OF ENSURING THE COMPLIANCE OF THE ACTIVITIES OF HIGHER EDUCATION INSTITUTIONS
WITH MODERN CHALLENGES
Mykola Kovalenko1, Alla Rusnak2, Dmytro Lomonosov3
Abstract. The purpose of the article is to identify ways to ensure that the educational process in higher education institutions meets the modern requirements of social development. The methodology of the comprehensive study allowed to identify priority areas of adaptation of universities to changes in the external environment; to summarize the main comprehensive measures to ensure the quality of education; to substantiate the feasibility of organizing continuous monitoring of the market of educational services to promptly provide the educational institution with the information necessary to make effective decisions; to generalize and supplement the principles of the adaptive process in higher education institutions; to develop recommendations for the formation of a support system for the adaptive process in higher education institutions. Methodology. The study is based on a systematic approach to the substantiation of the nature and directions of adaptation of the HEI to changes in the external environment, to the formation of a system to support the adaptation process of the HEI. It is shown that the priority directions of adaptation of the HEI are determined in relation to a particular educational institution and should include: reforming of the educational institution in accordance with modern requirements; implementation of market ideology; innovative development of the educational process; provision of modern education; development of interaction with employers - customers of educational services; diversification of funding sources. The scheme of information support for HEI adaptation to the requirements of the external environment was developed. The study of adaptive activities of successful HEIs allowed to complement the principles of reform and transformation of the organizational and economic foundations of HEIs with the principles of adaptive process organization, such as the practical experience of purposeful modernization of other HEIs to solve similar problems; analysis of the current situation of the HEI, the market of educational services and the prospects for their development; reliance on the corporate culture of the team; integrated systematic approach to economic and social problems; project approach to the formation and implementation of measures to ensure the adaptation program. The results of the study show that the system to support the process of adaptation in higher education is a set of management tools, which are based on the principles of adaptation process organization; adaptation strategy is aimed at improving the quality of education, competence of graduates; policy of adaptive management and reform of the educational process; development of market logic; development and implementation of programs to improve educational and scientific activities and their organic combination; diversification of educational activity; internal institutional restructuring; application of collective and individual forms and methods of economic, social, moral, psychological and other types of stimulation to intensify the adaptive process. Practical implications. An algorithm for forming a system to support the adaptation process in higher education institutions, including organizational and economic tools of institutional support for continuous adaptation process to coordinate the activities of the HEI with the dynamic conditions of the external environment, was developed. Value/originality. Determination of ways to ensure compliance of the educational process in the university with modern requirements of social development should
Corresponding author:
1 Admiral Makarov National University of Shipbuilding, Ukraine. E-mail: kovalenko45@ukr.net
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0235-7823
2 Admiral Makarov National University of Shipbuilding, Ukraine. E-mail: rusnak_av@meta.ua
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3198-2866 ResearcherID: AAC-7821-2019
3 Admiral Makarov National University of Shipbuilding, Ukraine. E-mail: dmytro.lomonosow@gmail.com
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4394-1807 ResearcherID: V-4880-2017
t 7- 1 r-r t Baltic Journal of Economic Studies Vol. 7 No. 5, 2021 ---
be based on understanding the essence of the concept of adaptation of the university to changes in the external environment as a process of purposeful change in the educational and scientific activities of the university and its units to the current and future changes in the external environment to ensure effective functioning, addressing certain goals and objectives of development, compliance of graduates' competencies with the requirements of the current and prospective labor market, competitiveness of the institution on the market of educational services; the essence of adaptive management as a process of creating conditions for the implementation in the educational process of society's requirements for quality, up-to-date knowledge received by graduates of the educational institution, compliance with the requirements of the current and future economy.
Key words: higher education institution, adaptation, external environment, adaptation process support system, monitoring, educational services market.
JEL Classification: H12, I21, I23
1. Introduction
The external environment of higher education institutions (HEIs) can often experience unpredictable and unexpected changes. This increases the requirements for the HEI in terms of efficiency and adequacy of response to them. Upcoming foreseeable changes in the external environment require special attention on the part of higher education institutions. The educational institution should train specialists with competencies that will be required by society in the distant future or at the time of graduation, or for some perspective for the graduate. Hence the specificity of adaptive management of the HEI, i.e., focusing on the predicted future requirements of educational consumers to ensure that the competencies of graduates meet the poorly predicted future needs of society.
Modern society is constantly evolving. The pace of its development is accelerating. Trends in global and national economic and social development are constantly being studied by foreign and domestic scientists. In particular, the publications of M. Castells (on the peculiarities of the formation of the society of the information age); V. Leontiev (on the ways of future development of the world economy); L. Myasnikova (on the paradigm shift of the new global economy); A. Vergun (on the concept of sustainable development in the context of globalization); V Geets (on the nature of the transition to a knowledge economy); V. Onikienko, L. Yemelyanenko and I. Teron (on the innovative paradigm of socio-economic development of Ukraine) and other researchers established that the processes of informatization in all spheres of the economy and social life; increasing the role of man and the requirements for his competences in production; the formation of a knowledge economy are the most noticeable and characteristic of modern society. New challenges, organizational and managerial issues require higher education institutions (HEIs) to solve a number of problems in the transition to a new logic in their activities.
The novelty of the study lies in the development of an algorithm for forming a system to support the
adaptive process in higher education institutions to ensure compliance of the educational process with modern requirements of social development, including organizational and economic tools of institutional and organizational support of continuous adaptive process of adaptation of the institution to the dynamic conditions of the environment.
The aim of the study is to identify ways to ensure the consistency of the educational process in HEIs with the requirements of social development. The study is based on a systematic approach to determining the priority areas of adaptation of universities to changes in the external environment, comprehensive measures to ensure the quality of education, principles of adaptation process organization in universities, organizational and economic instruments of institutional and organizational support of the continuous process of adaptation of HEIs to changes in the external environment. The main objectives are: determination of areas of adaptation of universities to changes in the external environment; justification of measures to ensure the quality of higher education; The main objectives: studying the role of monitoring the market of educational services and marketing research of HEIs for a guaranteed rapid response to changes in the external environment; generalization and addition of principles of organization of the adaptive process in HEIs; developing an algorithm for the formation of the support system of the adaptive process in HEIs.
2. Analysis of recent research and publications on the topic
Society and its ever-evolving economy need educated professionals capable of making responsible decisions in a rapidly changing environment and in uncertain situations. Accordingly, society is forming new requirements for high school graduates. Features of modern requirements of society and consumers of educational services (population and employers) are studied in the works of O. Amosha (modern approaches to the interaction of academic science,
education and industrial production); A. Afanasieva (formation of professional competence of a future specialist); B. Wolfson (educational strategy in the West in the XXI century); M. Golovan (the theory and experience of forming specialist competencies); O. Dannikov (the development of digital competencies in the context of the informatization of society); M. Kovaliov (education for the digital economy); O. Ovcharuk (competence approach in modern education, its world experience and Ukrainian prospects); A. Sbrueva (theoretical and methodological principles of the student-centered learning paradigm in the context of the implementation of the Bologna reforms); L. Semiv (university education in the transition to a knowledge economy) and others.
3. Directions for HEIs adaptation to changes in the external environment
At the All-Ukrainian forum "Ukraine 30. Labor resources" it was emphasized that Ukraine needs two types of initiatives in the labor sphere: formation of creative economy and high-quality and competitive professional education. Speaking at the forum, President of the Kyiv School of Economics T. Milovanov emphasized: "If education does not change and does not meet the challenges of today, preparing specialists with high labor productivity, if the level of their training does not meet the requirements of the employer, we will continue to harm people and delay development" (Ukrinform, 2021).
The economy is constantly forming new, higher requirements for specialists, which necessitates the modernization and change the final results of their training and ensure that the acquired competencies (knowledge, abilities, skills and other qualities) meet modern requirements. The need for these internal changes becomes a condition for the survival of the educational institution in the new determinants of functioning, its successful operation in the highly competitive market of educational services. These conditions are formed and dictated by the external environment of the HEI, which is understood as a set of elements of material (natural or artificial origin) or informational form that are not part of the organization and generating factors that directly or indirectly affect or can affect its condition, functioning and development, as well as external to the organization elements on which it affects itself or can affect (Lomonosova, 2020).
The study of O. Lomonosova (Lomonosova, 2020) identified changes in the external environment of the HEI, justified their impact on the educational institution and showed that the modern reform of higher education is aimed at achieving a new quality of educational services.
Management of process of adaptation of the university demands presence of system of development of organizational-economic maintenance of adaptation. The basic scheme of organizational-economic support of adaptation of HEIs to changes in the external environment provides the choice of type, structure, and constituent elements that determine the architectonics of the adaptation system (Kovalenko, Lomonosova, Rusnak, 2021).
Adaptation of HEI to changes in external environment is a complex, multifaceted, continuous process, which requires making reasonable and reasoned strategic decisions, taking into account specifics, current state and prospects of educational institution, capable of overcoming external challenges and becoming more effective and competitive. Accordingly, the priority directions of HEIs adaptation are determined relative to the specific educational institution and should include:
- reforming the institution in accordance with modern requirements;
- introduction of market ideology;
- innovative development of the educational process;
- ensuring modernity of education;
- development of interaction with employers -customers of educational services;
- diversification of funding sources, etc.
The directions of HEIs' adaptation to changes in the external environment are determined in accordance with the current state policy in the sphere of education. The state regional policy also plays a fundamental role in the modernization of the educational sphere. The focus on the creation of conditions for the development of each region in its economic, social, cultural and national aspects stimulates positive changes in education, determines the interest of the state in improving the level of education of the younger generation, taking into account regional and local characteristics (Zablotskyi, Palant, Diegtiar, Glibko, Bielska, Rusnak, 2019). Analysis of the theory and practice of HEIs adaptation to changes in the external environment suggests that the internal educational policy of HEIs should reflect national interests in the sphere of higher education and take into account general trends of global, national, regional, economic and socio-cultural development, personality changes and characteristics of the modern generation of students.
The strategic goals of education in general and higher education in particular derive from the general purpose of education, which is declared in the Law of Ukraine "On Education", which is "the holistic development of the individual as a person and the highest value in society, the development of his talents, intellectual, creative and physical abilities, the formation of values and competencies necessary for successful self-realization, the upbringing of
responsible citizens, capable of making informed choices and directing their activities for the benefit of other people and society, and the enrichment on this basis the intellectual, economic, creative, cultural potential of the Ukrainian people, raising the educational level of the people in order to ensure the sustainable development of Ukraine and its European choice" (Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, 2017). Thereby providing the national economy with qualified specialists. Thus, education is faced with two main tasks:
- human development and the fulfillment of human educational needs (a social problem);
- training of specialists needed by the national economy (an economic problem).
In order to determine the priorities of HEIs in modern conditions, it is necessary to take into account both aspects. The first is that higher education has become one of the components of universal values and has an independent value for human development as a person; for the satisfaction of educational and spiritual needs.
In the second aspect, education is of secondary importance, since the realization of economic and social challenges will last a long time and requires young qualified, well-developed specialists, ready to cope with crises and capable of making intelligent decisions in a market economy.
4. Quality assurance activities in higher education
Ensuring the quality of education is crucial to the economic and social development of the country, which, according to researchers, involves the implementation of the following comprehensive measures:
1. Training specialists meeting the demands of the labor market, capable of independently acquiring and building the necessary knowledge, skills and experience to adapt to new changes in knowledge in the future,
should be the main goal of quality assurance in higher education.
2. Continuous updating of the content of training. As part of the standards of education (educational and professional programs, curricula for specialties), the content of training should be constantly adjusted to reflect the latest advances in science, technology, economics, organization of production, etc.
3. Rapid changes in production, acceleration of social development, sharp increase in the flow of scientific and other information require a transition from reproductive to constructive teaching methods. The educational process should be based less on the activities of the teacher. It is necessary to increase the amount of independent work of students, to introduce the latest educational technologies, forms of learning, management and role-playing games, student participation in the implementation and research of scientific and technological developments. Lecturers should devote more time to individual professional and personal development of students, manage their creative growth. This will radically improve the quality of education, to form specialists with a new type of thinking, capable of intensive learning in a new rapidly changing environment.
4. Activities 2 and 3 are directly related and relevant to the innovative development of education, the introduction of educational technology and information technology.
5. Individualization of education is necessary to create the most favorable conditions for the professional and personal development of students and to ensure the variability of education. This requires the development and implementation of new modern programs, methods and forms of learning, focused on the most prepared and capable students.
The general scheme of information support of the process of adaptation of the HEI to the
The process of adapting the system, its elements
Ability to consciously choose alternative actions
Sensitivity to alternatives, the possibility of targeted restructuring of the system
Figure 1. Scheme of information support for the process of adaptation of the HEI
requirements of the external environment is shown in Figure 1.
5. The role of monitoring the market for educational services to ensure rapid response to changes in the external environment
Studies by many authors point out that the contradictory changes in the environment of educational institutions require them to change internally in different directions (Bespalko, 2002; Dannikov, 2018; Zimnyaya, 2003; Kovalev, 2018; Ovcharuk, 2004; Tatur, 2004; Kovalenko, Lomonosova, Shvorob, 2019; Ecoosvita, 2016; Manilich, 2005; Rybin, 2012).
In the activities of domestic HEIs, providing a prompt response to changes in the external environment is more important than detailing long-term strategies. According to the authors, such approaches to internal adaptive changes in HEIs are exceptional. Taking into account the specific nature of educational activity, the prospective nature of education, the need for its forecasting for the future, the planning of internal transformations of HEIs should be carried out on a long-term basis, and operational measures for constant adaptation to changes in the external environment should be considered as a response to the constant clarification of previously predicted changes in the market of educational services, regulatory requirements of legislative and regulatory acts of state or local governments and the corresponding adjustment of the adaptation process. This ensures that the process of adaptation is not of a catching-up nature, which a priori puts the HEI in a state of lagging behind the requirements of the market of educational services, but is preventive, which allows you to anticipate the fundamental changes in market requirements, timely prepare for their implementation and ensure that the competence of the HEI graduates and its competitiveness.
At the initial stage of the internal modernization of the educational process the importance is given to market research of the educational services market, the results of which should form the basis of the program of adaptation of the educational institution to the identified actual and expected changes in the external environment.
According to marketing research on the regional, national, and global market for educational services, identifying the specialties that businesses and organizations in the region and country will need in a few years is a complex task. Training specialists in particular specialties, sometimes explained by the needs of the market, in the future will cause problems with the employment of such specialists in the rapidly changing structure of the economy and labor market.
Therefore, when developing various educational programs, it is advisable to strengthen the fundamental training. Fundamental training is carried out in the first years of education, when the career prospects of future specialists are unclear. By laying a solid foundation of education, fundamental training with opportunities for self-education will allow graduates to quickly build up knowledge in the future, which will help them adapt to the new needs of the labor market, if necessary - to retrain. In general, fundamentalization will contribute to the implementation of the principle enshrined in the National Doctrine for the Development of Education -"Lifelong Learning" (Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, 2002).
The transition of HEIs to market conditions takes place in the process of radical reform of the domestic sphere of education, which is associated with significant institutional changes in the educational environment. The process of reforming requires HEIs to adapt and implement new rules of activity in the market of educational services. At a time of transformational change in the domestic education system, the external institutional environment has changed dramatically, becoming one of the driving forces of change in universities. Institutional changes require timely reconfiguration of HEIs to implement their provisions, namely a set of legal and economic rules and informal norms that form the conditions of interaction in the market of educational services and structure the relationship between market participants.
The current process of informatization of society requires modern teachers and applicants for higher education to understand the epochal information changes taking place in one or another professional sphere, to be prepared to implement their requirements, to form high digital literacy in graduates and the ability to update it regularly, corresponding to the high rate of updating information technology and software, development of artificial intelligence. Informatization and innovative development, intellectualization of labor cause structural changes in the labor market, require highly qualified, educated specialists, formation of intellectual elite of economic entities. The necessary response of the HEI to them is to increase the level of education and improve the training of the workforce. New information technologies require a new quality of education and better ways of providing it. The process of informatization of society also requires HEIs to restructure computer technology and teaching methods (Bespalko, 2002; Dannikov, 2018; Zimnyaya, 2003). There is an urgent need for students to develop competencies such as the ability to think creatively, critically, innovativeness, flexibility in dealing with functional responsibilities, etc., demanded by the economy (Kovalev, 2018; Ovcharuk, 2004).
Informatization of the economy became the basis for the gradual transformation of traditional forms
of economic management in the economic system of a new type (knowledge economy), in which knowledge becomes the main element of economic development and creates opportunities for more effective use of other factors of production. The essence of the knowledge economy is knowledge-based innovation. Intellectual capital based on science and education becomes the main source of wealth, the key to profitability and competitiveness of an enterprise.
In the knowledge economy people are the main resource. Intellectual capital of the organization is formed on the intellectual abilities of personnel, the intellectual potential of the organization, which has a value assessment and is used over a long period of time to carry out the operational activities of the organization to create new value and profit. One of the directions of restructuring the educational programs of the HEI is the formation of innovative competencies of specialists (Tatur, 2004).
Professional knowledge due to changes in technological practices is rapidly becoming obsolete. The optimal period of effectiveness of acquired knowledge and qualifications has been reduced to 5-7 years, and in high-tech industries to 2-3 years. The employment structure is also changing rapidly: about 500 professions disappear every year and more than 600 new ones appear (Kovalenko, Lomonosova, Shvorob, 2019). This requires universities to take new approaches to defining prospective curricula.
Higher education institutions determine the needs of society in professional training of citizens on the basis of analysis of the current situation, research of features and trends, forecasting and determining possible directions of development. Features of the development of various spheres of social life determine the requirements for the knowledge and competencies of university graduates, thereby determining the directions of higher education development.
The emergence of the concept of sustainable development changed the principles of traditional economics by requiring universities to develop environmental thinking in their graduates, regardless of their major (Ecoosvita, 2016).
The modern paradigm of higher education focuses HEIs on their transformation from a transmitter of knowledge and generator of specific skills and abilities into a direct producer of innovation and an active participant in the process of their introduction into new products, technologies and services, adaptation to postindustrial development and the needs of innovative economy requires improvement of the educational process of training specialists for tomorrow's economy, new approaches to teaching (Manilich, 2005; Rybin, 2012). The successful functioning of HEIs in the context of a change in the paradigm of higher education is ensured, in particular, by the rapid adaptation of educational institutions to these changes.
In order to research its own problems, the institution of higher education needs to systematize and classify them. In this case, you can use the formulated basic problems of domestic higher education and their comparison with similar problems in other countries, the proposed options for systematization of problems and conceptual map of the main socio-economic problems and contradictions of higher education in Ukraine (Lomonosov, Lomonosova, Nadtochii, 2019, vol. 5, no. 4).
Socio-economic problems of higher education, some of which were inherent in higher education in Ukraine even before its independence, were amplified by the immaturity of economic relations in the market of educational services. The main problems are: the reduction of state funding for higher education and the difficulty of diversifying the sources of higher education funding due to the difficult situation of the vast majority of businesses, the lack of industrial demand for the results of scientific research and the low solvency of the population; imbalance of supply and demand in the market of educational services and the mismatch between the market of educational services and the labor market; poor development of theoretical and methodological foundations of pricing for paid services in higher education; decline in the quality of education; low competitiveness of the higher education system and insufficient export of educational services; growth in the provision of educationalservices, mainly due to higher tuition prices; lack of reliable regional monitoring of the market of educational services (Lomonosov, Lomonosova, Nadtochii, 2019, vol. 5, no. 2).
In order to provide the educational institution with the information necessary to make decisions both in the educational system as a whole, and in a particular HEI, it is advisable to organize a continuous regional monitoring of the educational services market. Market monitoring should primarily make it possible to determine the needs of enterprises in specialists that will be needed in the future, the level of their training and the number of specialists in each specialty and degree of training.
The implementation of marketing monitoring will allow:
- to identify the long-term needs of enterprises and institutions in specialists, based on the prospects for the development of enterprises, as well as the analysis of regional and state socio-economic programs;
- to determine the disproportions between the capabilities of HEIs and the needs of enterprises and the population;
- to provide in a timely manner the information necessary to make adjustments to the lists of training specialties;
- to create and maintain a bank of job and education seekers, ensure their selection for targeted training, maintain ongoing ties with businesses, etc.
Organization of such monitoring will give the opportunity to respond quickly to the demands of the labor market, to create prerequisites that ensure the stability of the demand for educational services of HEIs, to form comprehensive programs for the development of necessary specialties. Every year Ukraine spends about 40 billion hryvnias of budget funds on higher education. State policy in higher education is aimed at meeting the needs of the economy for qualified specialists and defining priorities, the training of which specialists should be financed by the state. One of the tasks of marketing monitoring of HEIs is to take into account the state priorities in the training of specialists.
Positive experience of coordinating the role of public authorities and market agents of educational services is accumulated in many developed countries. For example, in Great Britain, the Employment Research Institute makes a 5-10-year forecast of the demand for specialists, changes in the structure of industries, changes in employment in the economy, distribution of employment by occupation and type of employment, and supply in the skilled labor market (Karpenko, 2013).
The German Institute for Economic Research regularly studies changes in the economic structure and makes employment forecasts in terms of occupations and qualifications (levels of competence) and labor market offerings. Another organization, the Employment Research Institute, develops projections of labor demand and labor supply; projections of economic growth and changes in the economy for employment in 22 industries and changes in the occupational structure of employment in each industry for 21 occupational groups. The Federal Ministry of Education and Research, the Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training, the Institute for Labor Market and Occupational Research at the Federal Employment Research Institute, and other organizations also conduct research on changes in occupations and skills. Government agencies in Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Ireland, the United States, and other countries have also accumulated experience in monitoring and forecasting labor markets (Karpenko, 2013).
Market research on local labor markets conducted by universities should be supplemented by the results of labor market demand studies at regional employment centers, research centers for monitoring higher education, and other structures. For a number of external reasons HEIs cannot independently monitor the market of educational services (Lomonosova, 2020). This determines the organization of regional scientific and methodological centers
for monitoring the educational market, which is advisable to create under the local public authorities.
To adapt the HEI to the changes in the external environment, it is extremely important to coordinate the activities of local government and self-government, namely to determine the needs of the economic complex of the community in personnel whose competencies meet the requirements of the new economy (Lomonosova, 2020). Monitoring of labor markets and educational services should be based on the interaction of local HEIs and state and local authorities. The role of the latter is, first of all, to determine the directions of development of the local economic complex, timely implementation of necessary relevant projects and forecasting the situation on the regional labor market. This allows the regional market of educational services to meet the needs of the local labor market, taking into account the prospects for socio-economic development of the region, to meet regional needs for specialists with higher education in the required degrees and specialties.
The nature of the external environment of the HEI and the typology of scientific approaches to its definition are investigated, the modern features of the external environment of the HEI and the factors of its formation are revealed and systematized (Lomonosova, 2021). In particular, the main economic, institutional and demographic factors actualizing the adaptation of the HEI to the changes in the external environment were identified. One of the most significant phenomena that influenced the activities of higher education institutions was the formation of the market of educational services, which led to a further gradual transformation of socio-economic relations in the field of higher education.
The search for answers to the questions "How to adapt to the new challenges?", "How to survive?", "What to do?" always begins with an in-depth analysis of the situation and identifying current or future problems of the HEI. A fundamental approach to solving the problems identified involves the development of an action program (strategy) to adapt the institution to the challenges of the external environment, which includes adequate organizational and economic adaptation measures, providing a full range of actions (from mobilizing all factors of competitiveness, financial, human and other resources to retraining personnel, etc.).
6. Principles of organizing the adaptation process in higher education institutions
Reform and transformation of the organizational and financial foundations of HEIs should be carried out according to the principles tested by many effective foreign and domestic institutions of higher education. Generalization of their experience allowed
Yu. Rusina to define the principles of reforming: scientific validity; readiness for systemic change; realism; consistency; human-centeredness (Rusina, 2016).
Research by the authors of the adaptive activities of successful universities shows that this list can and should be supplemented by the following principles of organizing the adaptive process:
1. Consideration of the practical experience of other HEIs on targeted modernization in solving similar problems.
2. Analysis of the current situation of the HEI and the market of educational services and prospects for their development.
3. Reliance on the corporate culture of the team.
4. A comprehensive systemic approach to solving economic and social problems.
5. Project-oriented approach to the formation and implementation of measures to ensure the adaptation program.
The implementation of these principles of the adaptation process should be supported:
- involvement of leading scientists, university professors with experience in scientific, pedagogical and organizational work in the organization of the adaptation process;
- a combination of collegial and managerial approaches to managing the adaptation process;
- involvement of stakeholders in the key processes of adaptation in the HEI;
- an objective assessment of the quality of the university's educational services;
- concentration of financial and human resources to implement priority areas of HEI adaptation to changes in the external environment.
7. Formation of a support system for the adaptation process in higher education institutions
The system to support the process of adaptation in higher education is a set of management tools, which is based on:
- the adaptation process organizing principles;
- adaptation strategies aimed at improving the quality of learning and competencies of graduates;
- adaptive management and reform of the educational process;
- development of market logic in activities, a combination of state and market regulation of educational activities, the development of entrepreneurship, the introduction of the principles of academic capitalism in the activities of the educational institution;
- development and implementation of programs to improve educational and scientific activities and their organic combination;
- diversification of educational activities, unification of curricula;
- internal institutional restructuring, bringing the regulatory framework in line with the objectives of modernization of educational and scientific activities;
- introduction of collective and personal forms and methods of economic, social, moral-psychological and other types of intensification of the adaptation process.
The project approach to the development and implementation of adaptation measures is an effective means of implementing the HEI's adaptation program. Project management, project approaches to solving various problems of the organization are widely covered in the literature. This approach solved the problems of developing and implementing, based on foreign experience, optimal organizational and financial models, different types of models and adaptation mechanisms, etc.
The quality of graduates' training, compliance of the competencies acquired by them with the social order, the current stage of economic development of the country can be criteria of effectiveness (efficiency) of programs (measures) to adapt the educational institution to the changing requirements of the external environment.
- The algorithm of formation of the adaptive process support system in higher educational institutions includes the following organizational and economic tools of institutional and organizational support of the continuous adaptation process to adjust the educational institution and bring its activities in line with the dynamic conditions of the external environment:
- monitoring of the external environment, the situation in the regional, national and global markets of educational services, forecasting and anticipation of marketing research;
- organizational design of ways to improve and implement methods of internal organizational, economic activities to ensure educational and scientific activities;
- differentiation of educational services in accordance with the new requirements of customers, consumers of educational services, the creation of infrastructure elements due to the process of adaptation to them;
- information support for improving the methods of teaching students and shaping their competencies that meet the social order for education, the requirements of the population, enterprises-employers, the economy of the region and the country;
- creation of a system of institutional support to improve (modernize) the management structure, methods of planning, analysis of educational and financial activities, social development of the institution;
- control over the implementation of the institution's adaptation strategy to changes in the external
environment, the focus of the adaptation process on improving the quality of education;
- prompt adjustment of the adaptation process, adaptive management structure and parameters of the adaptation process;
- encouraging the continuing professional development of academic staff.
In determining the directions and specific ways of development of the educational institution, the study of the problems of professional motivation of students associated with the transition to a new model of education, shifting the emphasis from specialist knowledge to his professional, personal qualities is inseparable from the study of the market of educational services. Education should be guided by the following:
- the main external factors of motivation to knowledge of a particular generation of people are the peculiarities of the period corresponding to this generation and the situation in the socio-economic sphere of society;
- peculiarities of the stage of development of the socio-economic sphere determine the conditions of economic entities and requirements for the professional competence of their specialists;
- the educational-scientific sphere of society creates conditions for members of society to obtain modern knowledge, forms an organizational system for the provision of educational services and through a system of ensuring the levels and quality of education creates a socially significant system of stimulating knowledge;
- internal motivation of a person to cognition develops under the influence of the information received regarding the imperatives and determinants of development of society, its socio-economic sphere, the current needs of production, jobs, understanding of the directions of their future progress and taking into account their preferences and inclinations for a certain type of activity;
- the task of motivating people to learn means, above all, realizing how to create conditions in which people will want to learn, develop their natural thirst for knowledge, and turn it into an acquired need that they will seek to satisfy.
Features, personal characteristics of the current generation of students require new approaches to the organization of their training, the transition from the principle of sufficient knowledge of graduates to the principle of competence and the corresponding reform of the educational process in the HEI, continuous self-improvement of teaching staff, mastering their teaching methods, information delivery technologies that are adequate to the characteristics of the student audience. In the process of reforming, HEIs in Ukraine must apply the latest approaches to the organization of the educational process - the competence-based approach
to learning, student-centered approach, distance education.
8. Conclusions
Determination of ways to ensure compliance of the educational process in universities with modern requirements of social development should be based on the understanding of the essence of adaptation of universities to changes in the external environment of their functioning as a process of purposeful change in the parameters of educational and scientific activities of the university, its other properties, its units to the current and future changes in the external environment. This ensures its effective functioning, solving certain goals and objectives of development, compliance of graduates' competencies with the requirements of the current and future labor market, competitiveness of the educational institution on the market of educational services; the essence of adaptive management as a process of creating conditions for the implementation of public requirements for the quality of the educational process, the modernity of knowledge received by graduates of the educational institution, compliance of competencies with current and future requirements of the economy.
The system of support of the adaptation process in HEIs should provide the development of action program (strategy) on adaptation of HEIs to the challenges of the external environment, contain adequate organizational and economic measures of adaptation, providing the whole range of actions -from mobilization of all available competitive factors, financial, labor and other resources to retraining, etc., formulated with the following principles of the adaptation process:
- taking into account the practical experience of targeted modernization activities of other HEIs to solve similar problems;
- analysis of the current situation of the HEI and the market of educational services and the prospects for their development;
- dependence on the corporate culture of their team;
- a comprehensive approach to solving economic and social problems;
- a project-based approach to the formation and implementation of measures to ensure the adaptation program.
Practical implementation of the proposed recommendations may be complicated by the unsolved theoretical issues of the adaptive management process, in particular, the set of graduates' competencies formation; evaluation of the results of educational institution adaptation to the requirements of consumers of educational services, etc. These issues may be an area for further research on improving the performance of higher education institutions in today's environment.
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