FINANCIAL POTENTIAL OF HIGHER EDUCATION INSTITUTIONS OF UKRAINE: ECONOMIC NATURE; PROBLEMS AND GROWTH OPPORTUNITIES

The article is devoted to highlighting the economic nature of financial potential, as an economic category that reflects the financial aspects of the economic activity of economic entities in general and higher education institutions in particular. The purpose of the article is to generalize scientific views, their systematization and the development of methodological approaches to the comprehensive study of financial potential of higher education institutions of Ukraine. The tasks of the publication are the application of comparative and systemic approaches in the study of financial potential, the identification of its relationship with finance as a basic category of financial science based on the use of key categories of the theory of knowledge, clarification the place of financial potential in the list of definitions of economic science and its role in the organization of economic activity at various levels of economic management, finding opportunities for practical growth based on improving the organization of educational activities and modernizing the financial system, developing proposals for improving the management of financial activities of higher education institutions based on the use of estimated (forecast, planned) and actual (reporting) indicators of financial potential. In the process of researching the financial potential as an economic phenomenon, its close connection with the economic power of the main activity of economic (institutional) units of the economy was revealed. For non-financial corporations — this is production activity, for institutions of higher education — this is educational and scientific (scientific and technical) activity. All other types of economic activity are of an additional (secondary, service) nature. Their organization must be directed to the full realization of the capacities of the main activity, which should contribute to increasing the efficiency of economic activity as a whole. Based on the analysis of statistical data regarding the activities of higher education institutions, it was found that the possibilities of increasing their financial potential during 2010–2020 steadily decreased, which is explained by a significant reduction, for various reasons, in the number of students. Overcoming the problem of lack funds, due to the increase in tuition fees, also seems problematic, since the income and expenses of higher education institutions are mainly formed outside their main activity, namely in the plane of the financial system, the modernization of which in line with the best world standards is gaining special importance.