The influence of higher education development trends on specialists training

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Lviv Polytechnic National University

The influence of higher education development trends on specialists training

Nataliya Mukan, Doctor of Sciences (Education), Professor, Professor of the Department of Pedagogy and Innovative Education

Ivanna Huzii, Doctor of Philosophy, Assistant Professor of the Department of Pedagogy and Innovative Education

Lan Hongxia, the student of the second (Master's) level of higher education, of the Department of Pedagogy and Innovative Education

Annotation

The article is devoted to the actual problem of higher education - the definition and characteristic of higher education development trends in the European space and their influence on specialists' training. The analysis of research literature proves, that the problem of higher education development in the 21^st century is discussed and researched by scientists in various countries, in different branches of knowledge highlighting its features, peculiarities, advantages and disadvantages as well as trends. The authors prove that the main trends in the development of higher education in European countries, especially quantitative growth of the student corpus; changing the purpose of higher education (at the current stage, higher educational institutions train not the social elite, but specialists in intellectual work); restructuring of the higher education system (introduction of three-level education, where each level is relatively independent); globalization, internationalization and fundamentalization of higher education; preservation of classical university education; development of scientific potential; individualization of education; implementation of corporate programs (education in modern universities is combined with work in firms or companies); broad involvement of young people in the research of current problems of science; improvement of the quality of higher education; modernization of educational technologies; intensification of the educational process have the great impact on higher education institutions and their functioning as well as their influence on specialists' training.

Keywords: higher education, higher education development, European Union, trends, quality assurance, specialist training, education standards, modular system of education, harmonization.

Анотація

Стаття присвячена актуальній проблемі вищої освіти - дослідженню розвитку вищої освіти з перспективи Європейського простору вищої освіти, визначенню його тенденцій, а також їхнього впливу на підготовку фахівців. Аналіз наукової літератури доводить, що проблема розвитку вищої освіти у ХХІ столітті обговорюється та досліджується вченими різних країн, у різних галузях знань, висвітлюючи її особливості, особливості, переваги та недоліки, а також тенденції. Серед них особливо актуальні аспекти: глобальні чи міжнародні тенденції розвитку вищої освіти; регіональні особливості розвитку вищої освіти; розвиток вищої освіти в різних країнах світу; вплив міжнародних тенденцій на розвиток вищої освіти на інституційному рівні; вплив драйверів різного характеру: соціальних, економічних, політичних, культурних, пандемічних, технічних тощо на розвиток вищої освіти; інновації в освітньому процесі сучасних університетів; формування професійної компетентності майбутніх спеціалістів з позицій міжнародного простору вищої освіти тощо. Визначено та охарактеризовано тенденції розвитку вищої освіти (потужне оснащення сучасними інформаційними технологіями, широке використання Інтернету; розвиток дистанційної освіти студентів; універсатизація вищої освіти, інтеграція закладів вищої освіти, як вітчизняних, так і міжнародних, створення університетських корпорацій; перехід на освітні стандарти, наближені до світових вимог; суттєві зміни в освіті та умовах праці, що викликають гостру потребу в навчанні впродовж життя), а також їх вплив на підготовку сучасного фахівця. Зроблено висновок про те, що організація вищої освіти спрямована на формування професійної компетентності сучасного фахівця, його здатності адекватно сприймати педагогічні інновації, створювати власну систему діяльності, легко адаптуватися до життєвих змін розвивати особистісну компетентність. Визначені європейські стратегічні орієнтири передбачають формування професійно компетентного фахівця, реалізацію індивідуально-творчого кредо особистості в процесі підготовки студента до професійної діяльності, який зможе реагувати на зміни в соціально-економічній сфері життя суспільства, здійснювати ефективну соціальну та професійну комунікацію, більш гнучко аналізувати та вирішувати різноманітні ситуації, на основі використання гнучких комунікаційних стратегій.

Ключові слова: вища освіта, розвиток вищої освіти, Європейський Союз, тенденції, забезпечення якості, підготовка фахівців, стандарти освіти, модульна система навчання, гармонізація.

Introduction

Nowadays, the development of higher education is considered in the context of the latest global or international trends. It means that countries and higher education institutions review their educational strategic, determine priorities, missions, and visions for future development. It is obvious that new strategies influence the development of modern concepts and methods in order to improve the educational process.

It is worth mentioning that new approaches are applied for higher education development. These new approaches are based on ideas of differentiation of higher education institutions, the application of competence-based approach in training future specialists, the competitive approach in educational market, development of social cooperation and partnership between higher education institutions and stakeholders, etc.

It is obvious that nowadays higher education meets the challenges and among them there is a demand to strengthen international activities, to develop procedures of recognizing knowledge and skills, qualifications of a students, development of cooperation with government, business, social entities, etc. Higher education in the world plays significant role in social, political, cultural, and economic development of society. That is why governments of various countries pay a special attention to the development of higher education and its harmonization with the trends of international educational space.

The analysis of recent research and publications. The analysis of research literature proves, that the problem of higher education development in the 21^st century is discussed and researched by scientists in various countries, in different branches of knowledge highlighting its features, peculiarities, advantages and disadvantages as well as trends. Among them, there are aspects which are of great topicality:

The analysis of research literature proves, that the problem of higher education development in the XXI^st century is discussed and researched by scientists in various countries, in different branches of knowledge highlighting its features, peculiarities, advantages and disadvantages as well as trends. Among them, there are aspects which are of great topicality: global or international trends in the development of higher education (D. Deardorff, H. de Wit, Leask and H. Charles [1]); regional features of higher education development (C. Sepulveda, Shultz and M. Peterson [9]); the development of higher education in different countries of the world (F. Riccomini, C. Cirani, C. Carvalho and J. Storopoli [7]); the impact of international trends on the development of higher education at the institutional level (I. Snijders, L. Wijnia, R. Rikers and S. Loyens [10]); the influence of drivers of various character: social, economic, political, cultural, pandemic, technical, etc. on the development of higher education (H. Tennakoon, J. Hansen, G. Saridakis, M. Samaratunga and J. Hansen [12], M. Wihlborg and S. Robson [15]); the innovations in the educational process of modern universities; the formation of professional competence of future specialists from the perspective of the international space of higher education (B. Williamson, S. Bayne and S. Shay [16]), etc.

The formulation of article purpose. The purpose of our article is defined as follows: to define and characterise the trends of higher education development in the European space as well as analyze their influence on specialists' training.

Results

The modern world is experiencing a fundamental change in approaches to education and socio-cultural policy in general, which is caused by the reorientation of society towards the development of a person, his personal and cultural qualities. Changes in public consciousness, humanity's attitude to the educational sphere caused the emergence of a new, personality- oriented, and humanistically-oriented paradigm of education, the basis of which is formed on the support of the child in his self-development, great attention to the individual and his professional activity. Spatial structure of the world education embodies territorial and statistical proportions in the development of the national system of each country, the essential components of which could be characterised as dynamism and internationality.

The development of the higher education system in the world is carried out under the influence of those technological, economic, and social transformations that are taking place in the international educational space. One of the leading modern trends in higher education is integration, the essence of which is to promote general socio-economic progress, strengthening mutual understanding between peoples by deepening cooperation in the field of education, improving its quality, etc. The process of creating an integrated space is formulated as the need to strengthen the intellectual, cultural, social, scientific and technological dimensions of international community, as well as the development of global citizenship, stable and democratic society. higher education european

In the process of our research, it was found that different countries spare no effort to improve the system of higher education, create favourable conditions for the self-development of the individual to achieve success in professional activities.

Speaking about the Bologna process, it is worth mentioning that its initiators were the ministers of education of France, Great Britain, Germany, and Italy. Having entered the policy of the Council of Europe, the European dimension in education was actively promoted during the 90-s of the 21^th century. Thus, in 1997, under the auspices of the Council of Europe and UNESCO, the Lisbon Convention on the Recognition of Higher Education Qualifications was developed and adopted and signed by 43 countries. Subsequently, the Sorbonne Declaration was signed, which contained the main directions of cooperation on higher education in Europe.

These decisions were subsequently approved in the Bologna Declaration, which was signed by 29 European countries. It aims to initiate a ten-year process of coordinated reforms and changes in European higher education [13].

When forming the European space of higher education, scientists and politicians defined the main goal and criteria for the conformity of education, which have an international dimension. They cover quality, trust building, compatibility, mobility, comparability of qualifications, education levels and attractiveness. The fundamental condition of compliance, mobility, compatibility, and attractiveness in the European space of higher education is its quality [15].

Ensuring the quality of education has an international dimension and is carried out on the basis of mutual respect and trust. One of the leading principles of the organization of European higher education, highlighted by the Association of European Universities, is the development of a culture of quality and research work of future specialists with the aim of not only obtaining an education, but also training them in research methods, forming critical thinking skills [13].

Therefore, the provision of high-quality education at all stages and levels, performance evaluation and quality management is one of the main tasks of today, which has not only a pedagogical and scientific context, but also a social, political and managerial one [15]. The personal orientation of education dictates the need to evaluate the quality of education in an integrated manner in the unity of individual characteristics of the individual, pedagogical indicators of the organization of the educational environment, and social parameters of the functioning of the educational system. Scientists distinguish internal and external factors of the quality of education that characterize the educational process, its result, and the education system in general. In particular, the internal characteristics of the quality of education include:

quality of the educational environment (technological management of the educational process, effectiveness of scientific and methodical work, resource provision of the educational process, personnel potential, etc.);

quality of the implementation of the educational process (scientific and accessible content of education, pedagogical skills of the teacher, effectiveness of teaching aids, in particular the quality of textbooks and manuals, satisfaction of various needs, etc.);

quality of the results of the educational process (level of educational achievements of graduates, their competence, development of critical thinking, general and communicative culture, degree of social adaptation) [13] (see Fig. 1).

Fig. 1. The internal characteristics of the quality of education

Thus, the quality of education can be defined as a multidimensional model of social norms and requirements for the individual, the educational environment in which it develops, and the education system that implements them at certain stages of human learning. In the broadest sense, the quality of education is defined as the correspondence between the resources of the educational process itself and the obtained results and consequences of the goal of education, standards, and requirements of society. The study and generalization of scientific and pedagogical sources lead to the conclusion that various options for evaluating the quality of training of future graduates are used in higher educational institutions of European countries [13].

In general, European universities have the right to independently determine their own assessment system. For example, universities in Germany and Austria also use a 5-point scale, but unlike in English-speaking countries, this scale is presented in numerical form (“1” - “very good”; “2” - “good”; “3” - “ satisfactory"; "4" - "sufficient"; "5" - "insufficient"). A 100-point knowledge assessment system is common in most UK universities. One of the progressive European trends is the formation of trust for the quality of education. Therefore, ensuring the quality of education has an international dimension and is carried out on the basis of mutual respect and trust. In the European Union, quality guarantees will not be determined by one organization, but a mechanism of mutual recognition of the result of compliance with the quality of educational activities based on accreditation is being developed. These mechanisms must respect national linguistic: disciplinary differences.

The global trends in higher education of European universities include: powerful equipment with modern information technologies, inclusion in the Internet system; development of distance education for students; universatization of higher education, integration of higher educational institutions, both domestic and international, creation of university corporations; transition to educational standards close to global requirements; significant changes in education and working conditions, causing an urgent need for lifelong learning.

For a complete understanding of the main positions of the European educational community regarding the awareness of education standards, we will turn to the sources that determine the concept of an educational standard, which is understood as an indicator by which the educational process and student achievements are measured during a specific educational period and which determines the degree of mastery of future specialists with elements of knowledge and skills.

The components of state educational standards in the vast majority of foreign countries are as following:

- state standards of primary, basic, full secondary and higher schools;

- basic curriculum containing a list of subjects;

- number of study hours and content of subjects;

- description of mandatory learning outcomes, which include knowledge, skills and abilities, values, key competences, levels, availability which should be measured to find out the quality of education.

The training programs must meet the needs of the European labour market, depending on when the qualification is awarded: after a bachelor's course of study or after a master's degree [4]. The ability to find a job on the labour market at any time throughout life is best achieved in the case of receiving a real qualitative education, which is achieved taking into account various approaches and directions to the disciplines being studied, flexibility of programs with the possibility of multiple connection and exit from the program, mastering transversal skills, such as communication and language skills, ability to mobilize knowledge, solve problems, work in a team [1], [9].

The peculiarities of the organization of the educational process in European countries after the restructuring of higher education and the adoption of the Bologna Declaration include a modular system of education, the main feature of which is the possibility of easy updating and combination of program components. Special attention is paid to the content of professionally oriented disciplines taught to future specialists in universities of European countries, acquisition of basic knowledge and skills in information technologies, formation of skills to solve professional problems, search for necessary information on the Internet, application of information and communication technologies in practical activities [5], [6], [14], [16].

Analysing the experience of training specialists in Great Britain based on a multimedia approach (Open University), it is worth mentioning the wide use of teleconferences, the Internet, computer programs, television broadcasting, and audio and video recordings. Mastering the basics of information and communication technologies and the methods of their application by future specialists provides an individual approach, which contributes to the expressed motivation for the construction of new models and individual trajectories of educational activity.

Humanization of education is also a leading trend of modern times. The human-centric reorientation of education under the influence of global and European dimensions involves the formation of a specialist whose level of training harmoniously combines key competencies, personality development in accordance with the spiritual values of national and universal culture [2].

One of the necessary qualities of the European area of higher education is the free mobility of students, teaching, administrative staff, and graduates. Such innovations of the modern educational process in the universities of Europe are characterized by wide mobility of study and professional choice as well as the introduction of two key educational cycles: undergraduate and postgraduate, as well as a three-level system of higher education organization: bachelor's, master's and doctoral studies.

Among other international trends which characterise the European educational space there is internationalization of higher education. Its essence consists in the creation of international educational structures with various goals and objectives, ensuring student mobility, i.e. the transition to flexible, mutually coordinated study plans of a modular type, which allow students to more easily adapt to the conditions of study at a university, other countries, widespread use of ICT and distance learning etc.

Analysing the impact of globalization on academic values, taking into account the Bologna process, it is worth mentioning a new concept of higher education and science as an element of a wider “knowledge industry”, increasing the value of professional education, development of new paradigms aimed at ensuring individualization and accessibility of education, distance form of education etc. [3].

European universities define attractiveness as one of the modern criteria and would like to attract talented people from all over the world to study. This requires action at the institutional, state, and European levels. Specific measures should be the adaptation of programs, titles, and degrees, understood both in Europe and beyond, compelling quality assurance measures, programs in major world languages, adequate information and marketing, attractive conditions for international students and scholars, and long-term partnerships.

The progressive trends of professional education in European universities also related to changes in the organization of the professional training process. At the same time, the European space of higher education considers such traditions as:

- social duty and responsibility,

- wide and open access to bachelor's and master's levels of education,

- the opportunity to continue education throughout life [13].

European higher education is based on scientific research and organizational diversity in the field of languages, national systems, types of educational institutions and their programs. Higher education institutions strive to build their activities on the principles of rapprochement, in particular on the basis of common features.

The dominant aspect of the modern education paradigm in the pan-European and national contexts is the focus on training aimed at creative self-assertion, self-development and self-realization throughout life, ensuring the competitiveness of university graduates. The integration of Ukraine into the world society requires the creation of a new system of professional education aimed at the formation of an educated, creative personality, as well as providing conditions for the fullest disclosure of its abilities, meeting educational needs.

Therefore, the main trends in the development of higher education in European countries are as follows: quantitative growth of the student corpus; changing the purpose of higher education (at the current stage, higher educational institutions train not the social elite, but specialists in intellectual work); restructuring of the higher education system (introduction of three-level education, where each level is relatively independent); globalization, internationalization and fundamentalization of higher education; preservation of classical university education; development of scientific potential; individualization of education; implementation of corporate programs (education in modern universities is combined with work in firms or companies); broad involvement of young people in the research of current problems of science; improvement of the quality of higher education; modernization of educational technologies; intensification of the educational process.

The defining criteria of professional education within the framework of the Bologna process are also the creation of a single pan-European space in the field of higher education for the harmonization of national educational systems, strengthening of trust between institutions of higher education; increasing the mobility and compliance of students, teachers and citizens to the European labour market; compatibility of qualifications at the university and postgraduate stages of training [12].

Attention is also paid to democratization and humanization of education, sociologization of cultural studies, environmentalization of educational content, and interdisciplinary integration.

The essence of the latest European proposals is that a person needs to create conditions for full-fledged development and comprehensive activity during his life at various stages of his personal and professional development, starting from the choice of the direction of professional activity and up to the post-professional stage of life [10], [11].

In European countries, for the purpose of effective professional training of a teacher, along with traditional, non-traditional methods and forms of education there are widely practiced such methods as modelling, role-playing and didactic games, micro-teaching etc. Alternative forms of education also include "free group discussion", in which students discuss problems, and the teacher acts as a listener. Progressive changes in the organization of the educational process also include trends regarding the transition from group forms and methods of learning to individual-group ones: tutoring classes, trainings, work in small groups, internships; advantages are given to the method of situation analysis, a transdisciplinary model of learning that involves the study of a certain problem and requires the creation of a project to solve it (implementation of problem-based and project-based learning) [13]. Among the active methods of learning, focused on the activation of communicative, cognitive and creative activities of students, preference is given to active lectures, lectures and discussions, writing and defending abstracts, and independent work [7], [8].

It should also be emphasized that each country has both general and specific forms and methods of teaching in universities. Thus, among the original forms of education in higher education in Europe there is a specialized research seminar, during which research is prepared - an abstract of 20-25 pages. The main task of such seminars is to teach students to develop their own point of view and defend it. One of the mandatory conditions for obtaining a prestigious job is at least a short-term (one or six months) study abroad. Also, the debates and discussions take a leading place, since such classes, as experts in the field of higher education believe, contribute to the development of students' communicative competence - the ability to express and argue their opinion, listen to others, act as a critic, develop the skills of spontaneous literary speech, form independence and critical thinking of future specialist. However, the tutor method is no less popular in higher education. It involves regular classes of a teacher-tutor with 2-3 students throughout the course, while each student is assigned to a tutor who constantly follows his academic performance, the formation of his professional skills, worldview etc. According to the plan, students perform independent works and essays during the holidays, which are considered the most appropriate for independent activities.

Therefore, new socio-cultural requirements emphasize the professional competence of the future specialist. Education is considered as a way of mastering effective means of obtaining information and acquiring self-education skills. It should create a person, able to ask questions and independently find answers to them, put forward hypotheses, draw conclusions and generalizations, possess technologies of self-improvement and self-realization.

The state policy regarding the educational sector of higher education also needs improvement. It is necessary to create a legal framework for optimizing the state financing system through a differentiated approach to its formation. It is also important to ensure the optimal ratio of budgetary and extra-budgetary sources of financial support for higher education.

Conclusions

The analysis of modern European trends in higher education proved the relevance of the transition from simple awareness or even enlightenment to a higher level of competence formation of future specialists. Nowadays, such an organization of higher education, the result of which is a high quality of competence, the ability to adequately perceive pedagogical innovations, create one's own activity system, easily adapt to life changes, develop one's own competence. The defined European strategic orientations provide for the formation of a professionally competent specialist, the implementation of the individual and creative credo of the individual in the process of preparing the student for professional activity, who will be able to respond to changes in the social and economic life of society, to carry out effective social and professional communication, to more flexibly analyse and solve various situations by means of communication.

So, we can state that in the conditions of overcoming the traditionally formed mass-reproductive character of the development of higher education, bringing it to the personal level, a significant role is played by European progressive approaches built on a humanistic basis. The characterized trends and priorities of higher education in Europe should find a logical reflection and adaptation in the higher education of Ukraine, which needs modernization and development.

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