UNIVERSITY SCIENTIFIC-METHODOLOGICAL CENTER IN THE SYSTEM OF PROVIDING QUALITY OF TEACHERS’ PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

The paper deals with the peculiarities of the establishment and functioning of a scientific and methodological cen-ter as a means of management in the system of ensuring the quality of the university educational process. The research aims to substantiate the essence, principles and characteristics of the activities of a scientific and methodological center at a university, to present a model for its functional structure and to examine the impact of the center's activities on the professional development of academic staff. The following research methods were used: theoretical – scientific sources were analyzed, synthesized, and generalized to determine the essence of the scientific and methodological center and its role in ensuring the quality of higher education; modeling – to build a functional structure model of a university scientific and methodological center; empirical – observation, survey – to determine the influence of the scientific and methodological center on teachers' professional development. The scientific-methodological center's goals, tasks, structure, functions, services, directions, forms and methods of activity for improving the level of professional devel-opment of academic staff within the higher educational institution's educational space have been distinguished. Tendencies in the higher education's internal quality assurance system are analyzed in the context of European re-quirements for the scientific and teaching activities of academic staff. A university scientific-methodological center is considered to be a structural unit, which is an integral system of interconnected information, diagnostic, methodical and other subsystems (center structures) providing planning, organization and coordination of monitoring research of the quality of university teachers' scientific and pedagogical activity – methodical support, formation of the educa-tional and developing environment for their professional and personal advancement and self-development. The sug-gested author's model of the functional structure of a university scientific and methodological center includes its goal, tasks, signs, principles, levels (university, faculty, department), services, forms and methods of activity and can be used as a pattern for establishing this kind of centers at higher educational institutions.