Jurchenko K.A., Mudrenko A.A., Tarasenko T.V.
Oles Honchar Dnipropetrovsk National University, Ukraine
CURRENT SITUATION IN THE MARKET OF HIGHER EDUCATION
Nowadays the stability of any economic system is associated with the development of education, especially higher one, which provides a quality increase in workforce potential. Today the education system operates under market conditions. The market of the educational services in Ukraine is developing rapidly and it is concerned with an increase in the number of students and establishing new institutions.
The number of people studying in educational establishments is steadily decreasing. From 2000/01 to 2010/11 academic years the number of students decreased by 21,65%. Most noticeable reduction in the number of students was in 2010/11 compared with 2000/01 academic year and it took place at educational establishments which provide evening (shift) and distance learning.
The most significant increase occurred in universities of III-IV levels of accreditation by 51,8%.
The main goal of this work is to analyze the problems and prospects of educational services that provide educational institutions in Ukraine. The first step is to analyze the indices dynamics in the market of higher education.
It can be noticed that the number of institutions of I-II and III-IV accreditation levels has had different dynamics for the past 20 years. The number of establishments of I-II accreditation levels has decreased by 31.94%. The number of establishments of III-IV accreditation levels has increased by 134,23%.
It’s obvious that the demand for higher education is constantly growing. And only since 2010/11 school year the number of universities of III-IV levels of accreditation has decreased.
In the institutions of I and II levels of accreditation the number of students has decreased by 53,21%, the number of school-leavers admitted to institutes by 61,24% and the number of graduates – by 49,8% for 20 years.
At institutions of III-IV accreditation levels the number of students has increased by 141,67%, the number of admitted school-leavers – by 124,64% and the number of graduates – by 297,15%, or almost tripled for 20 years.
This information confirms the fact that there is a progressing trend to get higher education at universities which have III-IV levels of accreditation in Ukraine. It also indicates that there is stagnation and deterioration in the labor market of maintenance occupations and unbalanced labor market and education market.
Most universities are located in Kharkiv region (37 universities), Donetsk region (27 universities) and Kyiv (69 universities).
The smallest number of universities is in Volyn, Chernivtsi and Zhytomyr regions (four universities in each region).
One of the important indicators of the dynamics of the scientific activity and the educational institutions activity is the number of postgraduate students and doctoral candidates.
530 educational institutions provide postgraduate study and 263 higher educational institutions provide doctoral studies. One of the main performance criteria of higher qualification scientific-pedagogical personnel is the number of theses defended during postgraduate study and working for doctor’s degree. The analysis shows that the efficiency index of postgraduate study activity in general at higher education institutions has been stable over the past 3 years and it makes up 24%. The efficiency index of doctoral candidacy during the same period makes up 28%. It results from this that only one in five graduate student and every fourth doctoral candidate defend theses during their post-graduate study and doctoral studies. More than 30% of postgraduate students and 50% of doctoral graduates present theses within 1-3 years after graduation from post-graduate study or doctoral studies.
The number ofdoctoral candidates is much smaller than the number of post-graduate students, in 2010 the ratio of postgraduate students and doctoral candidates was 22 to 1. In 1990, this ratio amounted to almost 27 to 1. The number of institutions which provide post graduate and doctoral studies is increasing. The rate has increased by 182% (postgraduate study) and 282% (doctorate studies) for 20 years. The number of post graduate students has risen by 259%, doctoral candidates – by 310%. The number of admitted postgraduates students has grown 2,5 times and the number of admitted doctoral candidates has tripled. At the same time the number of those who pass Ph.D. defense is 2.45 times smaller than number of people entering the post graduate study. The number of doctoral candidates is constantly growing. The number of admitted candidates has tripled for the last 20 years and the number of candidates who pass defense has quadrupled.
In conclusion we can say that there are certain obstacles which prevent the development of the educational services in Ukraine:
· the number of educational institutions of vocational direction is reducing, due to the fact that their need for the country hasn’t been proved and political solutions do not corresponds to the country’s needs;
· an increasing number of Candidates and Doctors of Science, which is not appropriate and relevant for a country that does not encourage the scientific work.
To solve these problems, it is necessary to bring the number and structure of higher educational establishments in compliance with labor market needs and the world educational space, stimulate the development of vocational education and training to create scientific-production complexes based upon the cooperation between association of educational institutions and businesses (industrial parks).