Improving the content and practice of implementing public policy in the field of quality assurance of higher education in Ukraine
Abstract
The existing practice of accreditation of educational programs is based on the National Agency for Higher Education Quality Assurance using the formalized by the Ministry of Education and Culture of Ukraine criteria for evaluating the quality of an educational program. According to the results of the analysis of the content of these criteria, it was established that about 35% of the sub-criteria actualized within them focus not so much on the problems of a specific educational program (competence of the structural unit of the Higher Education Institution), but on the issues of the functioning of the Higher Education Institution (competence of the Higher Education Institution). Given the fact that the objects of expert attention provided for by these sub-criteria have a consistent level of actualization for all educational programs of a particular Higher Education Institution, we can assume a risk of duplication of expert functions by the experts of the National Agency for Higher Education Quality Assurance from one accreditation to another. Such duplication not only causes overspending of the organizational and financial resources of each participant in the accreditation procedures, but also a distortion of the content of the control function, for example, in terms of the fact that different expert groups evaluate the same objects of expert attention, according to the same methodology, but at the same time formalize fundamentally different results. Avoiding this contradiction is possible by using the mechanism of multiple (re)use of the results of previously held accreditations of educational programs in a specific Higher Education Institution for the evaluation of other educational programs provided for in the annual accreditation plan of this Higher Education Institution, for example, in terms of the using assessments according to the so-called cross-cutting criteria from one accreditation procedure to another. The article contains the justification of the list of cross-cutting sub-criteria for evaluating the quality of an educational program, as well as proposals regarding the possibility of using the results obtained from them during the year from one examination to another. In addition, the article highlights the contradictions between the formalized standards of higher education of the Ministry of Education and Culture of Ukraine and the free interpretation of their content by Higher Education Institutions within the framework of educational programs unique in their content. Such a contradiction becomes manifested in the aggravation of the risks of inconsistency of the content of the educational programs formed by the project groups of Higher Education Institutions with a specified list of state-approved questions, for example, within the framework of the Unified State Qualification Exam, regarding the verification of the final knowledge of higher education applicants. Solving this contradiction is possible through the introduction of standard educational programs by specialty in terms of formalizing the list and scope of mandatory components (educational components of general and special training) of the educational program. The article substantiates the advantages of the mechanism of standardization of educational programs and conceptualizes the mechanism of its implementation. The article contains conclusions on areas of improving the content and practices of implementing public policy in the field of quality assurance of higher education in Ukraine, in terms of increasing the effectiveness of accreditation of educational programs and introducing a mechanism for standardization of their content for specialties in regulated professions.
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