Strategy for the Development of Higher Education in Ukraine in the Context of the Requirements for Human Capital and European Integration Processes

The article substantiates the need to develop strategic approaches to the modernization of the higher education system in Ukraine in accordance with the current needs of social development and European integration processes. The analysis of the formation of educational policy in Ukraine and its strategic priorities throughout the entire period of independence is carried out. Revealed the strengthening of the orientation of the higher education system (HES) in Ukraine in the European educational space, noted certain changes in the modernization of higher education. However, they do not provide sustainable progressive changes in the higher education system, solving existing problems and overcoming the lag of the domestic system of higher education from developed countries. An examination of the draft Strategy for the Development of Higher Education for 2021-2031 was carried out, an assessment of its positive parameters was made, and a number of omissions and shortcomings were identified that would limit its role in the significant modernization of Ukrainian higher education in accordance with the needs of human capital development and in modern processes of transformation of society, can hinder modernization of the highest school and its European integration vector of development. They are associated with a weak conceptual substantiation of the leading role of higher education in modern social progress; lack of adequate attention of the Strategy to the main stakeholders of the HES, primarily to employers who form the labor market for graduates of higher educational institutions, as well as to consumers of educational services - students and the population in general. The prepared draft Strategy does not sufficiently take into account the wide possibilities of digitalization for the development of universities, the priority need to develop students' skills of innovation and entrepreneurship, the need for a greater orientation of the activities of higher education institutions to the needs of regional development.