Academic Mobility in the Context of Increasing the Competitiveness of the Higher Education System

The purpose of the article is to study the processes of academic mobility in the context of increasing the competitiveness of the higher education system. The article considers the essence of the concept of "competitiveness of the system of higher education" and features of determining the level of competitiveness of the education system. The main tendencies of attraction of foreign students are studied. The state and trends of academic mobility of Ukrainian students are analyzed. The main obstacles and perspectives of the development of migration processes among Ukrainian students are studied in order to increase the competitiveness of the national system of higher education. The number of foreign students in Ukraine remains at a rather low level - 3.3%, while in the OECD countries in 2015, international students accounted for an average of 8%.Despite the apparent high level of interest in studying abroad among Ukrainian students, the share of those who participate in academic mobility is rather low. The most common obstacles to studying abroad include additional financial costs associated with staying abroad; insufficient knowledge of a foreign language; divorce with family and relatives; problems with the rules of access to the chosen country (obtaining a visa, etc.); the difficulties associated with integration into the domestic education system. It should be noted that, as a rule, in Ukraine, for the most part, students came from post-Soviet countries, but their share in the structure of foreign students is decreasing. If in 2015, 44.62% of this category of foreign students was noted, then in 2017 they amounted to 29.47%. At the same time, there is an increase in the number of foreign students from Africa, in particular Nigeria and Morocco. The high rates of growth of the number of Ukrainian students who choose foreign higher educational establishments for studying and the lower level of attraction of foreign students in comparison with developed countries testify to the need to increase the competitiveness of the domestic higher education system. It is determined that the current conditions of development of the global educational services market for quality of education become particularly complex, should ensure the rapid reaction of educational systems to changing conditions, especially through the development of academic mobility, which will ensure a high level of competitiveness of the national higher education system.