STUDENTS ‘SELF-GOVERNMENT IN HIGHER EDUCATION IN UKRAINE THROUGH THE EXPERIENCE OF THE EUROPEAN STATES

The article describes the concept of student self-government, which means the method of implementation of the student society its rights, responsibilities and initiatives by making decisions, relying on its own resources in the area of its competence, in cooperation with the administration and solving students' issues. The real situation of this phenomenon in Ukraine is investigated. By analyzing the legislation, the main disadvantages of the regulation of this public formations at the state level were identified. It is revealed that in Ukraine there are many problems, the main ones being the imperfection of national legislation (more precisely the lack of legislative base), the lack of clear boundaries for determining the competence of student self-government bodies, authoritarian influence of the management of higher education institutions, inadequate funding and not determining the legal status of the student body. Based on the experience of higher educational institutions of leading European countries such as the UK, Latvia, Poland, Germany, the difference between the native and European student self-government systems is revealed, which is that in European universities, student self-government bodies are most often endowed with the status of legal entities and have the support of the administration and much broader powers (both those which are fixed at the legislative level, and those that are ordinary and not fixed.). Also, the European system of student self-government does not compete with student unions, because they simply do not exist there. Based on this study, it is determined that the most important for its development is the empowerment of student self-government bodies and the introduction of a mechanism for their implementation, greater support from the administration of educational institutions and the interest of students.