Ukraine has significant educational and qualification potential for innovative development, which confirms the educational component’s significant contribution to Ukraine’s high ranking in the Human Development Index.
Human capital development is the basis for the formation of an innovative type of development in Ukraine based on intellectual and information production technologies.
The search for strategic directions for modernising public administration in favour of people requires identifying the underlying internal and external causes that impede the preservation of human potential’s qualitative and quantitative composition. The influence of global culture is an inevitable process that requires significant attention from the governance system to preserve national values, traditions, the best features of mentality, and national identity through regulating social relations.
The development of intellectual potential is a top priority for the state because, in the current environment, neither the wealth of mineral resources, fertile land, ideal climate, nor tourist attractions can compare with the human mind’s potential in terms of power or social significance.
Intellectual potential is a set of abilities, creative talents, skills, motivations of individuals, their educational and qualification, moral, ethical and cultural levels, which allow them to learn and create new knowledge appropriate for use in a particular area of social reproduction, using embodied intellectual means, and contribute to the growth of productivity and efficiency of production and thus affect the development of income of a particular individual in the future.
Non-governmental education is an example of successful entrepreneurship in Ukraine’s intellectual sphere. It is improving and occupies a worthy place in modern society. Non-governmental higher education plays a significant role in training the national intellectual elite, and non-governmental educational institutions are a significant competitor to state ones.
The “alternative” system of higher education institutions based on non-state ownership created in Ukraine significantly expands the opportunities for young people to obtain higher education in various specialities, considering the market economy’s needs. However, it should be noted that an alternative is seen in the payment for education when payment elements are increasingly being introduced into the life of state universities. It is not only about contractual conditions when an applicant who did not pass the competition is enrolled under a paid contract. There are also other paid services of state universities: fees for retaking exams, additional classes that need to be held through students’ fault, etc., can be negotiated. Many state universities have established fee-based faculties. At the same time, non-governmental universities have stringent rules: additional fees for missed (unexcused) classes and retaking exams. Along with this, some non-governmental HEIs help students who do well but do not have money to find a sponsor, or waive part of the fees or even provide free tuition for excellent students. Thus, the issue of alternative education cannot be reduced to the issue of fees.
The alternative should be the availability of academic disciplines not taught in other institutions and the attraction of the most qualified teachers to private higher education institutions. In addition, non-state higher education institutions are impossible without a focus on individual forms of education. Groups of 30 people and lecture classes of 150 students are unacceptable in such institutions. And finally, private higher education institutions are more likely to be highly demanding in terms of both recruitment and education. It is necessary to consider the quite common psychological attitude of students of private universities: I have paid my fees; what else can be demanded of me? Therefore, admission to such universities without exams, only based on the results of an interview, is inappropriate, and many private universities have already moved to selecting applicants on a competitive basis.
If these conditions are not met, non-governmental HEIs will not only fail to become elitist, which they certainly want but will also be unable to compete with governmental ones.
Another sign of alternative, which applies to both private and public educational institutions, is the right of students to choose both the discipline and the teacher, i.e. the widespread introduction of so-called elective courses. This is the only way for state and non-state educational institutions to become truly elite.
An achievement in developing higher non-state education in Ukraine is creating a vast network of educational institutions, which has expanded access to education for young people and their professional choices. This is undoubtedly the accumulation of significant scientific and methodological experience through updating domestic methods and programs, studying foreign experience and adapting it in Ukraine, and creating new textbooks by teachers and researchers of non-governmental higher education institutions. This should also include gaining experience in education management under market socio-economic conditions and attracting significant funds from domestic and foreign citizens to develop education.
The development of non-state education contributes to mobilizing society’s existing intellectual potential to solve the problem of its preservation and development. This is possible because a broad field is created to realize the teaching staff’s creative scientific and pedagogical potential.
Finally, establishing non-state educational institutions manifests the democratization of social life in Ukraine and overcoming the state’s monopoly in education.
Official recognition of non-state education manifests not only in legislative and regulatory documents but also in the fact that experienced representatives of non-state education are increasingly involved in the management of national education, which will undoubtedly contribute to improving the entire system of national education in Ukraine.
In the practice of educational institutions, including non-governmental ones, significant experience has been gained in various changes, transformations, innovations and initiatives, which together lead to global changes in education and the transformation of its content and quality. In recent years, the foundations of the non-state education system have been actively formed, its volume is growing, its status and social prestige are increasing, and a developed regulatory framework is being formed. At the same time, competition in the educational services market is growing for some socio-political, demographic, and economic reasons. One of the effective means of ensuring competitiveness is the innovative activity of non-governmental educational institutions.
One such institution in Ukraine is the Interregional Academy of Personnel Management, Ukraine’s most significant economic and humanitarian higher education institution. Today, IAPM is a leader in non-governmental education in Ukraine, and it is included in the World Higher Education Database, which is regularly published by the International Association of Universities under UNESCO auspices.
