Determinants of Leadership in Higher Education in European Countries

Rapid technological development, globalization, digitalization, the COVID-19 pandemic, and many other factors cause significant transformations in education, which requires regular updating of forecasts of short-term and long-term trends in the development of the educational services market, determination of labour market needs, updating of strategies for training qualified specialists, etc. The research aims to identify the main determinants that determine the leadership of 31 European countries in higher education for 2017-2021. The following research methods were used to achieve the goal of the research: analysis and synthesis, comparison and grouping, induction and deduction, abstraction and logical generalization, tabular and graphic method, factor analysis (principal component method), cluster analysis (hierarchical, Ward's method). The input data array includes fifteen different indicators (official statistical data of Eurostat and the European Commission) characterizing the development of higher education. The factor analysis was carried out using the principal component method proved that the most significant determinants determining the leadership of European countries in higher education are the number of students enrolled in higher education institutions, the number of new entrants, the number of teachers and scientific and pedagogical workers in higher education, state and private expenses for higher education, financial assistance to students of higher education, number of graduates by level of higher education. These variables are the basis of a hierarchical cluster analysis using Ward's method. It made it possible to identify five clusters among European countries that differ in the determinants that determine the country's leadership in higher education. All calculations were made in the STATA/SE 18.0 software package. Modelling found that funding is a determinant of leadership in higher education for the United Kingdom, France and Germany. Turkey is the leader in the number of students enrolled in higher education in 2017 and 2021. At the same time, for most of the studied countries, indicators of financing higher education and indicators characterizing the number of participants in the educational process tended to decrease in 2021 compared to 2017. The obtained results can be used by state and local authorities, as well as other interested parties, to harmonize the reforming of the higher education market, and higher education institutions to improve the quality of educational services and their compliance with the needs of the labour market.