Socio-economic pre-conditions of the development of higher pedagogical education in Australia at the beginning of the XXI century

Modern trends in the development of society, the global processes taking place in various spheres of life, the development of technologies and innovations have led to significant changes in the system of higher education in Australia and the modernization of educational field. Nowadays, the Australian economy is a developed, modern market economy with GDP of about 1.23 trillion dollars USA. In 2011, Australia was ranked 13th among the world's largest economies at nominal GDP. In the last 23 years, Australia has demonstrated continued GDP growth, despite the two world economic downturns, the average growth rate was 3.3% per year. The highest index of the human development index of Australia in 2014 was 0.94. Such positive dynamics of the country's economic prosperity contributed to the changes that took place in Australia's higher education system, changing the structure of universities and their essence, and also made possible a new look at the value of knowledge and close links with the economy of the country and society. The radical reforms of higher education, initiated by Labor Minister John Dawkins a quarter century ago, and its impact on the sector, also stimulated the modernization of education, which corresponded to the basic principles of a market economy, and transformed education into an important resource of personal, social and state development. Reforms in higher education have made it accessible to society and became a long-term investment in the future. But along with this, there were a number of challenges that had to be reconsidered. In Australia, the idea of creating new university models requires significant changes. Universities have traditionally been resilient to change and new business models, with such academic theories, which usually aimed at academic independence. University leaders must find ways to stay true to the idea of higher education, supporting academic integrity and independence while simultaneously changing their business models. In the light of these changes, the main question is "Does university education provide the necessary training for working life in the twenty-first century" Research and thorough understanding of Australian experience in understanding the essence of higher education, its impact on the development of the knowledge economy and ways of reforming the educational sector, as well as the training of education workers, make it possible to outline the main areas of reforming higher education in Ukraine. Higher education as a component of socio-economic development of society should become a competitive and open to investment sphere. Therefore, the growth of the scale of training should remain a strategy for the long term period.