Competitiveness of National Higher Education Institutions in the
International Market of Educational Services: The Case of Ukraine
Liudmyla Kalashnikova
1 a
, Liudmyla Chernous
1 b
, Olena Lakomova
1 c
, Tetiana Karpenko
1 d
and
Olena Zavalniuk
2 e
1
Kryvyi Rih State Pedagogical University, 54 Gagarin Ave., Kryvyi Rih, 50086, Ukraine
2
Kryvyi Rih Mining and Technological Lyceum, 1L Elistinska Str., Kryvyi Rih, 50000, Ukraine
{lvkalashnikova198, chigik4, lakomova.k.r, tkazakova1810, zavalniukelena}@gmail.com
Keywords:
International Market of Educational Services, Foreign Students, Higher Education, Export of Educational
Services.
Abstract:
The article outlines the features of the functioning of the international market of educational services, as
well as its national segments, in particular, on the example of Ukraine. Particular attention is focused on
the organization of training for foreigners in Ukrainian higher education. The advantages and disadvantages
of Ukrainian higher educational institutions in comparison with other exporting countries are determined.
The analysis of the statistical materials of the ratings of Ukrainian universities, presented in the systems of
international assessment, as well as the data of the Ukrainian State Center for International Education on the
possibilities of exporting higher education. The experience of conducting sociological surveys among foreign
students studying at Ukrainian universities is generalized. Based on the analysis, recommendations were
developed to improve the competitiveness of Ukrainian higher educational institutions in the international
market of educational services.
1 INTRODUCTION
As is well known, as a result of increasing global-
ization, all spheres of public life have been trans-
formed, as the main factors of development in the
modern world have been the production, dissemina-
tion and use of knowledge. The field of educational
services is no exception, which has recently been
characterized by trends of integration, international-
ization, academic mobility, rapid development of ed-
ucational marketing, export/import of educational ser-
vices, in particular through the introduction of infor-
mation and communication technologies.
Developed countries today are actively competing
for leadership in the international market of educa-
tional services. Intending to strengthen its position
on it, the European Union has created a single educa-
tional and scientific space for higher education (Eu-
ropean Research Area) within the framework of the
a
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9573-5955
b
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0916-7205
c
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7798-2263
d
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7340-0238
e
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6093-732X
Bologna Process, while pursuing political, economic
and scientific and educational goals. As of the end
of 2020, 48 countries have joined the region, includ-
ing Ukraine, which signed the Bologna Declaration
on May 19, 2005 (Khomeriki, 2015).
Over the years of implementation of the prin-
ciples of the Bologna Process, the Ukrainian mar-
ket of educational services has undergone significant
changes. Namely, there has been a liberalization as-
sociated with the easing of institutional constraints
on the formation of educational content and the or-
ganization of the management process. Thus, as a
result of debureaucratization and decentralization re-
forms, Ukrainian higher education institutions have
been able to freely choose their areas of operation,
which is undoubtedly an extremely important factor
in improving their efficiency and thus competitiveness
in the international market of educational services.
Thus, in this article, the authors aim to analyze the
theoretical and methodological foundations for study-
ing the competitiveness of national higher education
institutions in the international market of educational
services, as well as to study the state and problems
of the functioning of the national segment of higher
education that provides services for foreign students,
Kalashnikova, L., Chernous, L., Lakomova, O., Karpenko, T. and Zavalniuk, O.
Competitiveness of National Higher Education Institutions in the International Market of Educational Services: The Case of Ukraine.
DOI: 10.5220/0012646400003737
Paper published under CC license (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)
In Proceedings of the 4th International Conference on History, Theory and Methodology of Learning (ICHTML 2023), pages 73-84
ISBN: 978-989-758-579-1; ISSN: 2976-0836
Proceedings Copyright © 2024 by SCITEPRESS Science and Technology Publications, Lda.
73
to determine the trends that dominate in state strate-
gic plans and programs, based on the requirements of
consumers of educational services.
To achieve this goal, it is necessary, firstly, to ana-
lyze the theoretical and methodological foundations
for studying the competitiveness of national higher
education institutions in the international market of
educational services, secondly, to analyze the exist-
ing national and international trends in the function-
ing of the higher education market, thirdly, on the ba-
sis of empirical research to identify and analyze the
requests of foreign students for the provision of edu-
cational services in Ukraine, fourthly, to identify the
reasons for the slowdown in the development of the
national segment of the international market of edu-
cational services and, fifthly, to outline possible direc-
tions for continuing research in this area in Ukraine.
The theoretical significance of the study lies in the
fact that the accumulated and processed material con-
tributes to an increase in the efficiency of work in the
matter of creating a Ukrainian brand of higher edu-
cation and its promotion in the international market
of educational services. The practical significance
of the work lies in the possibility of its use as a ba-
sis for developing a strategy to increase the competi-
tiveness of Ukrainian higher educational institutions.
This study is important not only for the Ukrainian sci-
entific community, the political establishment and the
higher education system in terms of optimizing ap-
proaches to the development of the national market of
educational services in the field of higher education,
but also for other countries cooperating with Ukraine
in this area, including companies, who invest or plan
to invest their finances in the development of higher
education in Ukraine.
2 LITERATURE REVIEW
The original concept of matching educational services
to the demands of the global market was proposed by
Lombardi et al. (2001), who noted that the competi-
tiveness of higher education institutions depends lin-
early on the level of uniqueness and high productiv-
ity of the academic community and internal quality.
Among the leading factors in the international com-
petitiveness of universities, Altbach (2003) focused
on the ability of higher education institutions to con-
duct breakthrough research that can be evaluated and
disseminated worldwide, the availability of highly
qualified faculty, high levels of academic mobility,
transparency and efficiency. University management,
availability of proper logistics. Unlike his predeces-
sors, Horta (2009) believed that the international com-
petitiveness of national higher education institutions
is determined by their belonging to a group of coun-
tries with dominant scientific systems, as well as a
high level of internationalization of educational and
scientific space.
Pavlenko and Antonyuk (2014) noted that the key
factor in the competitiveness of national higher educa-
tion institutions is the degree of autonomy granted to
them, the ability to show initiative and entrepreneur-
ship in the process of adapting to the demands of the
global market of educational services. However, no
less important factors of success are intellectual capi-
tal, innovation systems, international cooperation and
financial opportunities.
The problems of internationalization of higher
education, as well as the integration of the Eu-
ropean educational space were studied by Vargh-
ese (2008), Knight (2004), Ammigan (2020), Lon-
dar et al. (2020), Stepanenko and Debych (2017),
Abuselidze and Zoidze (2023). Instead, Levchenko
and Plynokos (2015) focused on clarifying the pos-
sibilities of exporting educational services by higher
educational institutions of Ukraine, and Rayevnyeva
et al. (2020) on the factor conditionality of their
competitiveness.
Despite numerous scientific studies of the pecu-
liarities of the functioning of international and na-
tional markets of educational services, ensuring the
competitiveness of higher education institutions im-
plemented by both foreign and Ukrainian authors,
Ukraine’s position in this context is insufficiently
studied and needs to be clarified, in particular judg-
ments of foreign students. Most of the presented
studies are devoted to the analysis of economic fac-
tors of competitiveness, while the social component
of this process requires clarification and additional
study. The relevance of conducting sociological re-
search of the higher education system is increasing in
connection with the introduction of a higher educa-
tion development strategy aimed primarily at meeting
the needs of students and potential stakeholders.
3 MATERIALS AND METHODS
The design of the study of the competitiveness of
Ukrainian higher education institutions in the inter-
national market of educational services was based on
the use of a mixed methodology, i.e. a combination of
general scientific and special, quantitative and quali-
tative methods, the choice of which was determined
by the goals and objectives of this study.
In this work, the authors used general scientific
methods. In particular, the authors used traditional
ICHTML 2023 - International Conference on History, Theory and Methodology of Learning
74
and critical analysis, synthesis, induction, deduc-
tion, comparative historical method, statistical anal-
ysis method, desk analysis of documents and reports
of public services for analytical understanding of the
state and features of the provision of educational ser-
vices to foreign students. To identify the problems
that exist in the provision of educational services, as
well as the reasons hindering its development, the
method of critical analysis and analysis of expert
opinions was used. To study the requests of the pop-
ulation for the provision of educational services, the
method of analyzing secondary data was used the re-
sults of sociological studies conducted in Ukraine.
The use of forecasting and scenario planning methods
made it possible to determine the main trends in the
development of the national higher education market.
4 THEORETICAL CONSTRUCT
The international market of educational services as
an independent segment of the economy is a system
of relations between producers, suppliers and con-
sumers, interacting in the process of production and
sale of a kind of product educational services. The
starting point for its operation should be considered in
1995, when the World Trade Organization approved a
general agreement on trade in services, in which edu-
cational services were separated into a separate sector.
According to Savytska et al. (2016), educational
service can be defined as a socio-economic phe-
nomenon, which is characterized by: intangibility
(there is no actual ability to touch or even measure,
because only intellectual capital is evaluated as a re-
sult of learning, the only material evidence about re-
ceiving an educational service there is a documentary
certificate in the form of a diploma of higher educa-
tion); inseparability from the source (it is a question
of belonging to a concrete institution of higher edu-
cation, educational services cannot exist outside the
organizational structure of the education system); in-
stability of quality (due to the dynamism of the edu-
cation system, as well as the lack of full standardiza-
tion, the quality of educational services can be con-
trolled only at the time of its provision); synchronic-
ity/asynchrony of production and consumption pro-
cesses (on-line learning mode provides coincidence in
time and space of production and consumption pro-
cesses, while in off-line mode these processes are
asynchronous). With this interpretation in the interna-
tional market, educational services take the form of a
commodity product, acting as formalized knowledge,
competency systems of students or educational pro-
grams, learning technologies produced by teachers.
On the other hand, the provision of educational
services can be defined as a social process character-
ized by relative duration in time and space, the obliga-
tion of interaction of subjects and objects of learning,
delayed detection of results, openness of information,
personnel and other exchanges. In this case, educa-
tional services should be understood as a combination
of material and technical base, scientific and pedagog-
ical staff, organizational culture, international and na-
tional partners, as well as communication channels.
In accordance with the provisions of the General
Agreement approved by the World Trade Organiza-
tion, educational services are implemented in four
ways (Aydrus and Filippov, 2008):
1) “consumption abroad” involves the movement of
the consumer to the country where the service is
provided;
2) provision of educational services remotely with
the help of information and communication tech-
nologies;
3) commercial presence of the organization-provider
of educational services of one country and terri-
tory of another in the format of functioning of rep-
resentations, branches;
4) the presence of representatives of the
organization-provider of educational services
provides for academic transnational mobility of
individuals to provide educational services.
The first method is traditional, its implementation
does not require additional efforts from the export-
ing country, it involves the provision of educational
services for full-time, part-time or distance learn-
ing. Instead, the other three cross-border methods
involve a thorough analysis of the national markets
for educational services in importing countries, pri-
marily through empirical marketing research to study
demand, potential opportunities to open branches of
higher education institutions, academic mobility, and
so on. Extremely important for cross-border forms
of export of educational services is the organiza-
tional stage associated with the legal registration of
branches, structural units, the availability of appropri-
ate logistics, the ability to move capital, selection of
teaching staff, training. The organization of distance
learning of foreign students involves the creation of
an appropriate legal framework and the appropriate
level of use of modern information and communica-
tion technologies.
Recent trends in the international market for ed-
ucational services require national higher education
systems to be competitive, namely to be able to pro-
vide training for innovative professionals based on
Competitiveness of National Higher Education Institutions in the International Market of Educational Services: The Case of Ukraine
75
modern training models in accordance with the de-
mands of both national and international labor market
in a highly skilled workforce. When assessing com-
petitiveness as a whole set of capabilities of an ed-
ucational institution, it is advisable to apply a com-
prehensive approach that allows to take into account
various aspects of the functioning of the higher edu-
cation system.
In particular, Rayevnyeva et al. (2020) emphasize
such components of the competitiveness of higher ed-
ucation institutions as:
1) rational and effective organizational structure of
the educational institution; availability of quality
management system for training;
2) highly competitive mobile educational programs
that are able to fully meet the demands of the labor
market;
3) established innovative educational process;
4) flexible system of scientific and technical, admin-
istrative and economic and business communica-
tion. Thus, the leading factors influencing the
ability of national higher education institutions to
compete in the international market of educational
services are the implementation of a customer-
oriented approach, the possibility of mixed financ-
ing, innovation and investment potential, stimulat-
ing domestic productivity, academic mobility and
comprehensive monitoring. quality of educational
services.
Levchenko and Tsarenko (2016) identified the
possibility of using a number of empirical methods
to assess the level of competitiveness of higher ed-
ucation institutions, including the method of expert
evaluations, surveys of participants in the educational
process, statistical and economic-mathematical anal-
ysis, profile method, SWOT and PEST analysis, rank-
ing method, etc. Among these methods, the latter is
the most popular, given its functionality for integrated
assessment.
According to the Observatory on Academic Rank-
ing and Excellence, there are more than 100 aca-
demic rankings in the world today. The most famous
of which are Academic Ranking of World Universi-
ties (ARWU), QS World University Rankings (QS),
Times Higher Education (THE), Universitas21 (U21)
(Hou and Jacob, 2017).
The last of these methods of assessing the activi-
ties of national markets for educational services U21
provides for the definition of 29 indicators, grouped
by such categories as (Larionova, 2012):
1) resources (sources of funding);
2) environment (assessment of gender parity in the
academic environment among teachers, availabil-
ity of access to relevant statistical information on
the state of development of the higher education
system, its structure, quality of student training,
teacher mobility, probability of attracting foreign
teachers, etc.);
3) relations (assessment of the scale and effective-
ness of international cooperation, implementation
of research activities);
4) effectiveness (number of scientific publications,
the level of their citation, the level of coverage
of the population with higher education, the num-
ber of scientists in the country, the unemployment
rate among the population with higher education,
etc.).
However, we believe that the method of expert as-
sessments and surveys of participants in the educa-
tional process is more effective in caring for the di-
rect involvement of informants as consumers of edu-
cational services in the development of programs to
increase the competitiveness of higher education in-
stitutions.
5 FEATURES OF THE MARKET
OF EDUCATIONAL SERVICES
INTERNATIONAL AND
NATIONAL TRENDS
Due to historical reasons, namely the leadership in the
world economy, the leading providers of educational
services in the international market are the United
States (20% of the total foreign nationals studying
abroad), Great Britain (10%), Canada (9%), China
(9%) Australia (8%), France (6%), Russia (6%), Ger-
many (5%), Japan (4%) and other countries (23%).
Despite the fact that the United States still remains
the leader among countries exporting education, the
rating has changed somewhat over the past 20 years
Western European countries have lost to Canada,
China and Russia (table 1) (Institute of International
Education, 2020).
Over time, the United States has become increas-
ingly difficult to maintain its leadership position as
competition in the international market for educa-
tional services continues to increase. The greatest
successes are achieved in countries where education
operates mainly at the expense of the state or mixed
public-private funding. For such countries, education
is a leading tool for global competitiveness, as the
government invests primarily in the development of
ICHTML 2023 - International Conference on History, Theory and Methodology of Learning
76
Table 1: Rating of countries-exporters of educational ser-
vices 2000-2020, % of total foreign nationals studying
abroad.
Country
Year
2000 2022
United States 28 20
UK 14 10
Germany 12 9
France 8 9
Australia 7 8
Japan 4 6
Spain 3 6
Canada 2 5
Belgium 2 4
Austria 2 2
All others 18 21
international educational ties. Unfortunately, today
Ukraine is not among the world leaders in the pro-
vision of educational services, but its current state in
this area does not correspond to the existing educa-
tional potential.
Despite the fact that the United States leads the
ranking of countries exporting educational services,
the total number of educational institutions reaches
4.3 thousand, the number of foreign students in Amer-
ican higher education institutions does not exceed
5.5% of the total number of students. Similar figures
in other countries are significantly higher. For exam-
ple, in Russia this figure is 8.5% with a total of 766
universities, in Poland 6.4%, 397 higher education
institutions, respectively. While the UK has a much
smaller number of higher education institutions and
172 universities, one in four students comes from an-
other country (table 2) (Institute of International Edu-
cation, 2020).
The most popular among foreign students who
studied in 2019 in the US were such areas of training
as engineering (22.7%), mathematics and computer
science (20.0%), business and management (18.0%).
Instead, in the UK and Poland business and manage-
ment, as well as social sciences. Russia and Poland
have the highest among other countries in the training
of medical professionals (table 3) (Institute of Inter-
national Education, 2019).
Also in Russia and Poland, foreign students study-
ing for bachelor’s degree programs are significantly
more prevalent than in other countries, where both the
first (bachelor’s) and second (master’s) levels of train-
ing are almost equally represented (table 4) (Institute
of International Education, 2019).
Ukrainian higher education institutions have suf-
ficient potential to fight for the share of the market of
educational services at the international level. Today,
Ukraine has one of the densest networks of universi-
ties: 6.7 universities and 8 colleges, technical schools
and colleges per 1 million Ukrainians. While the
same figure in Poland is 9.2 universities and similar
educational institutions, in Russia 5.8, Germany
4.3, the UK 3.7, respectively (Verkhovna Rada of
Ukraine, 2022).
According to the State Statistics Committee, as of
the beginning of 2021, there are 515 universities and
similar educational institutions in Ukraine (table 5).
Structurally, the Ukrainian segment of higher edu-
cation is represented by: 29.0% universities, 23.0%
institutes, 11.0% academies, 19.0% separate depart-
ments, 1.0% research centers, 17.0% other research
institutions and organizations. Of these, 64.5% are
based on state property, 12.2% communal and
23.2% private, corporate (State Statistics Commit-
tee of Ukraine, 2023). A similar ratio of the number of
state-owned higher education institutions to individu-
als is typical of Germany and Russia. In Poland and
the United Kingdom, on the other hand, the situation
is the opposite: there are significantly more private
universities than public ones.
Ukraine is characterized by a high level of profes-
sional training of teaching staff of higher education
institutions every second teacher has the degree of
Candidate of Sciences, every tenth Doctor of Sci-
ence.
The total number of students in Ukraine is 1.422
million people, of whom 44.0% study at the expense
of the state budget, the rest (56.0%) at the ex-
pense of individuals. Given the distribution of grad-
uate students by training, Ukrainian institutions of
higher education train specialists in socio-economic
and humanitarian fields (44.0%), engineers (16.0%),
physicians (8.0%), teachers (7.0%), transport workers
(6.0%), specialists in natural sciences (4.0%), archi-
tects and builders (3.0%), service workers (3.0%) and
others (State Statistics Committee of Ukraine, 2023).
According to the results of 2020, Ukraine took
36th place in the ranking of national systems of higher
education Universitas21, gaining 47.8 points out of
100 possible (Williams and Leahy, 2020). Of the 280
existing Ukrainian higher education institutions, only
6 are leading in the ranking. In particular, Kharkiv
National University named after V. Karazin, which
took 491 positions out of 1002 represented world in-
stitutions of higher education, is followed in the rank-
ing of Ukrainian universities by Kyiv National Uni-
versity named after T. Shevchenko, National Techni-
cal University “Kharkiv Polytechnic Institute”, Na-
tional Technical University “Kyiv Polytechnic Insti-
tute named after I. Sikorsky”, Sumy State University,
National University “Lviv Polytechnic”.
In the ranking of the Times Higher Education in
Competitiveness of National Higher Education Institutions in the International Market of Educational Services: The Case of Ukraine
77
Table 2: Characteristics of the higher education system, 2020.
Country United States UK Australia Russia Germany Poland
International students as percentage 5.5% 22.3% 31.3% 8.5% 11.7% 6.4%
of total higher education
Public institutions 1659 167 53 500 270 130
Private institutions 2639 5 87 266 159 267
Table 3: Inbound students by field of study 2019, % of the total number of foreign citizens studying abroad in the country.
Field of study / Country United States UK Australia Russia Germany Poland
Engineering 22.7 11.0 10.6 21.9 26.4 7.8
Business and Management 18.0 26.7 40.5 18.6 15.6 28.6
Mathematics and 20.0 6.6 13.2 3.8 10.8 7.2
Computer Sciences
Other/Unspecified Subject Areas 8.5 8.1 9.9 7.7 4.5 10.2
Social Sciences 8.3 14.3 6.8 2.7 6.8 18.5
Physical and Life Sciences 8.0 9.6 4.9 4.8 8.6 0.7
Fine and Applied Arts 6.2 6.9 3.7 2.4 7.9 3.7
Health Professions 3.5 6.6 7.4 15.7 5.3 13.3
Education 1.7 2.5 2.0 9.1 1.2 2.7
Humanities 1.7 7.2 0 10.4 10.9 6.2
Agriculture 1.4 0.5 1.0 2.9 2.0 1.1
2020 among 92 countries, Ukraine is represented by
11 higher education institutions, where in addition
to the above, the activities of Kharkiv National Uni-
versity of Radio Electronics, Ivan Franko National
University of Lviv, Kyiv National Economic Uni-
versity, National University were evaluated “Ostroh
Academy”, Chernihiv National Technological Uni-
versity (Times Higher Education, 2020).
According to the Ukrainian State Center for In-
ternational Education, as of the beginning of 2021,
76548 foreign students, graduate students, doctoral
students, and students from 155 countries were study-
ing in Ukraine. Over the past ten years, there has been
a positive trend in the internationalization of higher
education, as the total number of foreign students
has almost doubled (from 38,166 people in 2011 to
67,327 people in 2020, there was a slight decrease
in the total number of foreign students from 80,470
people). 2019 to 76548 people in 2020 in connection
with the global coronavirus pandemic) (table 5) (State
Statistics Committee of Ukraine, 2023).
As of the beginning of 2021, out of the total num-
ber of foreign students staying in Ukraine, 90.02%
came for basic education, 6.45% – for language train-
ing, 2.25% for continuing postgraduate education,
1.27% postgraduate and doctoral studies, 0.01%
in academic mobility programs.
The leading donor countries for Ukraine are India
(23.64% of the total number of foreign students), Mo-
rocco (11.54%), Azerbaijan (6.95%), Turkmenistan
(6.05%), Nigeria (5.52%), China (5.30%), Turkey
(5.22%), Egypt (3.98%), Israel (2.75%), Uzbekistan
(2.07%) and others (Ukrainian State Center for Inter-
national Education, 2021).
With the growing demand for education export
services, the supply is growing the number of higher
education institutions accepting foreign students has
increased from 185 institutions in 2015 to 394 in
2020. The highest figure was in 2019 and amounted
to 455 universities (table 5). The decrease in the num-
ber of institutions that provide training to foreigners is
due to objective reasons the reduction in the num-
ber of institutions of I-II level of accreditation in the
country.
The most popular among students from other
countries are Kharkiv National University named af-
ter V. Karazin, where 4277 foreigners study, Kharkiv
National Medical University (4215), National Med-
ical University named after O. Bogomolets (3061),
Odessa National Medical University (2935), Zapor-
izhzhya State Medical University (2860), Vinnytsia
National Medical University named after M. Pirogov
(2771), Dnipro State Medical University (2573),
Ternopil National Medical University named after
I. Gorbachevsky (2433), Bukovynian State Medical
University (2095), T. Shevchenko National University
of Kyiv (1838) (Ukrainian State Center for Interna-
tional Education, 2021).
Usually, international students choose those spe-
cialties that are in demand in the country of their cit-
izenship. Thus, in 2020, among a number of oth-
ers, such areas of training were popular as medicine,
which was chosen for admission by 32.36% of foreign
students, medical 7.72%, dentistry 6.33%, man-
ICHTML 2023 - International Conference on History, Theory and Methodology of Learning
78
Table 4: Inbound students by academic level 2019, % of the total number of foreign citizens studying abroad in the country.
Academic level / Country United States UK Australia Russia Germany Poland
Undergraduate degree/ Qualification 55.3 51.4 46.3 60.3 40.9 76.2
(Post-)Graduate degree/Qualification 46.7 40.8 48.6 29.9 59.1 23.8
Undergraduate study abroad/Non-award - 7.2 5.1 3.2 - -
(Post-)Graduate study abroad/ - 0.6 - 6.6 - -
Non-award
Table 5: Characteristics of higher education institutions in Ukraine 2010-2021.
Year Number of higher Number of higher Number of Number of Number of
education education students, foreign students, trainees,
institutions institutions million people students, doctoral students,
accepting people people
foreigners
2010-2011 813 - 2.418 38166 53664
2014-2015 664 - 1.689 56933 63172
2015-2016 659 185 1.605 53493 63906
2016-2017 657 228 1.587 52147 64066
2017-2018 661 239 1.539 48991 66310
2018-2019 652 443 1.522 54556 75605
2019-2020 619 455 1.440 60006 80470
2020-2021 515 394 1.442 67327 76548
agement 4.36%, pharmacy 3.10%, law 2.97%,
architecture and construction 2.96%, secondary
education 2.27%, finance 1.95%, economics
1.60%, philology 1.29% and others (Shapovalova,
2020). Educational programs for the training of med-
ical workers are most in demand among students
from India, Morocco, China and Asia. Students from
post-Soviet countries choose to study such special-
ties as law, economics, international relations, bank-
ing, public administration, etc. The largest number of
foreign students mastering the educational programs
“Secondary Education”, “Philology” came to Ukraine
from China (Shapovalova, 2020).
Another positive point that attracts foreign stu-
dents to Ukraine is the cost of education. According
to the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine,
the average tuition fee for medical students is 4.3
thousand dollars a year, and for other specialties 2
thousand dollars (Ministry of Education and Science
of Ukraine, 2020), which is almost 10 times less than
in Western Europe or 5 times less than in Turkey or
China. Nevertheless, the competition for foreigners
to enter Ukrainian higher education institutions is al-
most non-existent, and accordingly the chances of ob-
taining a diploma are much higher than in the coun-
tries of origin.
Spivakovska and Hnativska (2010) conducting a
comparative analysis of higher education institutions
in Ukraine and other countries, systematized the ad-
vantages and disadvantages of Ukrainian universities
given their attractiveness to foreign students, present-
ing the results in the form of a table (table 6, 7).
According to these authors, given the differences in
higher education, Ukraine as an exporter of educa-
tional services can focus on the target audience of
students from the Middle East, Southeast and Central
Asia, as well as post-Soviet countries.
In our opinion, the list of these differences is in-
complete and needs to be supplemented.
6 SURVEY RESULTS OF
FOREIGN STUDENTS
STUDYING IN UKRAINE
In order to describe the situation on the Ukrainian
market of educational services and to clarify the
level of competitiveness during July-August 2020, the
State Enterprise “Ukrainian State Center for Inter-
national Education” and Kharkiv National Economic
University named after S. Kuznets conducted a sur-
vey among students with the assistance of the Min-
istry of Education and Science of Ukraine for-
eigners studying in various educational institutions of
Ukraine (sample size 451 people). The survey was
conducted using the questionnaire method.
The responses of foreign students confirmed the
assumptions about the existing advantages of Ukraine
compared to competing countries in the market of ed-
ucational services. After all, the leading factors of
choice in favor of Ukrainian higher education institu-
Competitiveness of National Higher Education Institutions in the International Market of Educational Services: The Case of Ukraine
79
Table 6: The results of a comparative analysis of the peculiarities of the functioning of higher education institutions (Ukraine
compared to the EU, the Middle East, Asia and Africa).
Advantages Disadvantages
1) lower price for education and 1) poor living conditions in
accommodation dormitories
2) availability of material and technical 2) outdated equipment in laboratories
base for conducting laboratory for practical training
and practical classes 3) lack of teaching in German, French
Arabic, Turkish and other languages
(with some exceptions)
4) limited budget places for
foreign students
Table 7: The results of a comparative analysis of the peculiarities of the functioning of higher education institutions (Ukraine
in comparison with the countries of the post-Soviet space).
Advantages Disadvantages
1) lower price for education and 1) higher tuition fees compared to
accommodation compared to Russia Belarus, Georgia, Moldova,
2) loyal attitude to representatives Turkmenistan and others
different nationalities, religious
beliefs
3) higher level of education quality
tions for the majority of surveyed students were the
reasonable cost of education (44.1%), political and
geographical location of Ukraine (41.7%) (table 8)
(Ukrainian State Center for International Education,
2020).
Table 8: Distribution of respondents’ answers to the ques-
tion “Why did you choose to study in Ukraine?”, % of the
total number of respondents, multiple choice.
Answer options %
Quality of education 36.8
Cost of education 44.1
Recognition of the diploma in the homeland 34.8
I wanted to study in Europe 41.7
Opportunity to gain practical experience 27.0
Other reasons 11.3
The hypothesis about the complexity of paper-
work was also confirmed, as almost a third of respon-
dents (27.4%) had some difficulty in obtaining a study
visa. According to the respondents, the time spent on
obtaining permits averaged from 1 to 3 months (ta-
ble 9), and had to pay about 500-1000$ and more (ta-
ble 10) (Ukrainian State Center for International Ed-
ucation, 2020).
The third hypothesis about the difficulties of ex-
porting educational services due to the lack of infor-
mation, marketing and advertising support for recruit-
ment, the lack of a network of university agents, was
also confirmed. After all, the majority of respondents
processed documents through intermediaries private
Table 9: Distribution of respondents’ answers to the ques-
tion “How much time did you spend preparing documents
for admission (receiving an invitation, legalizing docu-
ments, translation, obtaining a study visa)?”, % of the total
number of respondents.
Answer options %
Less than 1 month 23.6
From 1 to 3 months 60.7
More than 3 months 15.7
Table 10: Distribution of respondents’ answers to the ques-
tion “How much money did you spend on preparing docu-
ments for admission (receiving an invitation, legalization of
documents, translation, obtaining a study visa?)”, % of the
total number of respondents.
Answer options %
Up to 100$ 3.5
100-300$ 12.8
300-500$ 111.6
500-1,000$ 28.2
More than 1,000$ 43.9
recruitment companies (table 11), which in their ac-
tivities do not always meet the requirements of in-
tegrity. In addition, the involvement of third parties
significantly delays the processing of documents and
increases the cost of this procedure (Ukrainian State
Center for International Education, 2020).
As practice shows, when it comes to the intentions
of foreign students to study abroad, along with such
factors as the quality of educational services, career
opportunities, adaptation and the formation of a sense
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80
Table 11: Distribution of respondents’ answers to the ques-
tion “How did you apply for an invitation to study?”, % of
the total number of respondents.
Answer options %
Personally in Ukraine 16.6
Through the website 1.1
of the Ukrainian State Center
for International Education
Sent to the university by mail in person 4.1
Sent online to university 5.2
Through a private recruitment company 73.0
of belonging are especially important. That is why the
development of social support networks is relevant,
which at the stage of recruitment contribute to the for-
mation of a positive social microclimate. Therefore,
it is advisable to intensify the work of universities
in this direction, in particular by creating appropri-
ate services on the official websites of higher educa-
tion institutions on the Internet, groups on social net-
works, the organization of national and international
educational fairs and more.
The average score of satisfaction of foreign stu-
dents with studies at Ukrainian universities is 6.3
points (where 1 point completely dissatisfied, 10
points completely satisfied) (table 12) (Ukrainian
State Center for International Education, 2020). The
average score was calculated as the arithmetic mean
of all data given by respondents.
Table 12: Distribution of respondents’ answers to the ques-
tion Are you satisfied with your studies at the university
(where 1 point completely dissatisfied, 10 points com-
pletely satisfied)?”, % of the total number of respondents.
Answer options %
1 8.0
2 4.0
3 5.0
4 5.0
5 12.0
6 10.0
7 20.0
8 12.0
9 7.0
10 17.0
Table 13: Distribution of respondents’ answers to the ques-
tion “What language is taught in?”, % of the total number
of respondents.
Answer options %
In English 56.0
Mixed form of teaching 18.0
In Russian 16.1
In Ukrainian 9.9
Table 14: Distribution of respondents’ answers to the ques-
tion “In what language would you like to study?”, % of the
total number of respondents.
Answer options %
In English 58.9
In Russian 25.6
In Ukrainian 8.8
In French 4.3
In German 2.0
In another language 0.4
Table 15: Distribution of respondents’ answers to the ques-
tion “What would you like to improve in the system of edu-
cation of foreigners in Ukraine?”, % of the total number of
respondents, multiple choice.
Answer options %
Material and technical base of 47.0
the university
International community 44.0
University infrastructure 37.0
Dormitories 50.4
Opportunities for leisure 37.6
Nothing, everything is satisfying 17.2
Students have a number of reasons for dissatisfac-
tion with their studies in Ukraine. It is, first of all,
about the language of instruction. Despite the fact that
in the vast majority of educational institutions teach-
ing is in English (table 13), students seek to study in
their native language (table 14) (Ukrainian State Cen-
ter for International Education, 2020). Every fourth
student surveyed wants to study in Ukrainian univer-
sities in Russian, first of all, they are from the post-
Soviet countries. However, the issue of language is
particularly acute for Ukraine, especially given the
military conflict with Russia, so meeting this require-
ment is extremely problematic, at least for now.
Almost half of the respondents are dissatisfied
with the state of living in dormitories, logistics of uni-
versities (table 15) (Ukrainian State Center for Inter-
national Education, 2020).
7 IMPLICATIONS AND
CONCLUSION
At the beginning of the XXI century, competition
among education-exporting countries has received a
new impetus due to the adoption by most Western
European countries of an action program to expand
foreign policy, including export-import policy in the
field of educational services. Such interest in the de-
velopment of this market segment is determined by a
number of reasons: the available economic benefits
Competitiveness of National Higher Education Institutions in the International Market of Educational Services: The Case of Ukraine
81
(payment for tuition, accommodation, meals, trans-
port, entertainment, etc.); the possibility of modern-
izing national markets for educational services to in-
crease competitiveness; intensification of the expan-
sion of international cooperation in the field of sci-
ence and technology, language, values and culture, as
well as the need to form a positive image of the coun-
try in the world community.
The field of education is developing dynamically,
trying to meet all the demands of scientific and tech-
nological progress in the field of material production,
the deepening of the international division of labor
and the growth of socio-economic needs of mankind.
Analysis of its functioning allows us to draw cer-
tain conclusions that the modern international market
of educational services is characterized by trends of
internationalization and development of cross-border
education, large-scale academic mobility of students
and teachers, development of new strategies for ex-
porting educational services in a pandemic, creation
and development of network structures of providers,
transition from mass enrollment of students to search
of the most talented.
Ukraine is not yet able to fully compete with the
leaders in the ranking of countries exporting educa-
tional services. However, today it is steadily embrac-
ing its niche among them, owning about 1.0% of the
international market. Ukrainian higher education in-
stitutions have the potential to increase exports of ed-
ucational services, primarily by increasing the share
of gross value added in higher education as one of the
leading sectors of the national economy.
To identify the problems that exist in the provision
of educational services, as well as the reasons hin-
dering its development, the method of critical analy-
sis and analysis of expert opinions was used. These
methods made it possible to supplement the list of
differences of functioning of higher education insti-
tutions in Ukraine and other countries. Thus, the ad-
vantages of Ukraine include the convenience of polit-
ical and geographical location, the availability of ex-
tensive transport infrastructure, high security of resi-
dence, convertibility of Ukrainian diplomas of higher
education abroad, highly qualified teachers, a variety
of educational programs and more. No less important
is the international context of Ukrainian legislation in
the field of education, which is loyal to both foreign-
ers and refugees. There is also an official information
resource in Ukraine the Ukrainian State Center for
International Education, which is a state source of in-
formation on the export of educational services.
Among the shortcomings, compared to the closest
competitor Russia, Ukraine still has a fairly strict
system of legalization of documents (a paid proce-
dure for affixing an apostille on official documents
is mandatory). Another weakness of Ukraine is the
lack of a network of university agents, and thus the
ineffectiveness of individual information campaigns
to attract foreign students, both at the national and
regional levels. Given the popularity of medical ed-
ucation programs, emphasis should be placed on the
need to address internship education and appropriate
practical training.
As for the quota of budget places for foreign stu-
dents, it applies only to persons coming to study in
Ukraine in accordance with international agreements
on cooperation, as well as foreign Ukrainians. Ac-
cordingly, the expansion of quotas would further mo-
tivate non-residents to study at Ukrainian universities.
A significant disadvantage is the lack of complete
information about educational programs and the list
of disciplines, because not all official university web-
sites present them in English. In addition, if a for-
eign student wishes to transfer to further education in
a particular educational program, there is a problem
of compliance with the content of the programs of the
same name, as well as the question of making an aca-
demic difference.
If most of these shortcomings of the international
direction of the Ukrainian segment of higher educa-
tion are eliminated, our country will be able to signif-
icantly increase competitiveness in the global market
of educational services.
Analysis of statistical data and systematization of
the results of empirical sociological research led to
the conclusion that over the past five years, the com-
petitiveness of the Ukrainian higher education system
has slightly increased. As we can see, despite the pos-
itive changes taking place in Ukrainian higher educa-
tion today, in particular in the international direction,
a number of key issues remain unresolved, which sig-
nificantly affect its competitiveness in the market of
educational services.
The use of forecasting and scenario planning
methods made it possible to determine the main
trends in the development of the national higher ed-
ucation market. In particular, the first step in this di-
rection is to change the priorities of Ukrainian educa-
tional policy in order to increase the competitiveness
of national universities. In particular, the Ministry of
Education and Science of Ukraine approved a plan of
measures to promote national higher education insti-
tutions in the global market of educational services,
which provides for the establishment of an associa-
tion of foreign graduates, improving the legal frame-
work, creating an interagency electronic platform, in-
tensifying international cooperation with partner uni-
versities. etc. (Ministry of Education and Science of
ICHTML 2023 - International Conference on History, Theory and Methodology of Learning
82
Ukraine, 2021).
The study, conducted by the authors before the
recent full-scale invasion of Russia on February 24,
2022 on the territory of Ukraine, included the study
of the state and problems of the functioning of the na-
tional segment of higher education, which provides
services for foreign students. The outlined prospects
for the internationalization of Ukrainian higher ed-
ucation were possible in peacetime. A number of
higher education institutions and foreign students are
already known to have been affected by the war,
which should not be ignored, and perhaps even iden-
tified as a direction for future research. In the near
future, Ukraine’s position in the international mar-
ket will be shaken, since even today the landscape of
Ukrainian higher education and its opportunities have
changed significantly. The decrease in the influx of
foreign students will depend on the duration of hos-
tilities, the possibility of ensuring their safe stay in
Ukrainian institutions of higher education. A prior-
ity for development and a topic for further research
may be the distance education of foreign students in
Ukrainian universities, who work today in exile.
With the start of a full-scale war in February 2022,
all foreign students left the territory of Ukraine and
continued their studies remotely. Some students, due
to the inability to continue their studies in their own
country or transfer to another university, returned to
Ukraine to complete their course of study, despite the
dangers of wartime. How events will develop in the
future depends, first of all, on the duration of hostili-
ties on the territory of Ukraine. The main problems of
organizing the education of foreign students today are
security, communication in the face of power outages
and the Internet.
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