Development of the educational programmes: normative legal and methodical support

Abstract

Ukrainian higher education is in the process of reforming. In particular, there is a transition from a traditional discipline-based approach to competency, introducing a student-centred approach in teaching and learning, requiring a rethinking of approaches to developing educational programmes and ensuring higher education quality of at this stage. The Paris Communiqué states that quality assurance in accordance with the «Standards and Recommendations for Quality Assurance in the European Higher Education Area ESG-2015» is one of the three key commitments crucial for strengthening and maintaining quality and cooperation in the middle of the EHEA. Therefore, ensuring the quality of higher education, in particular the quality of educational programmes, is relevant both to the Ukrainian and European higher education spheres. The article analyses the existing normative, legal and methodological bases on the issue of developing educational programmes in Ukraine. The requirements of the Law of Ukraine «On Higher Education» regarding the development of new educational programmes are researched. The requirements of «Licensing conditions for conducting educational activities» regarding the composition of the project (working) group and its head (program guarantor) are investigated. «Methodological recommendations for the development of educational programmes», «Methodical recommendations for the development of higher education standards», letters from the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine with explanations of questions regarding the development of educational programmes are considered. The correspondences and contradictions between these documents and «Standards and Recommendations on Quality Assurance in the European Higher Education Area ESG-2015» are analysed. The normative requirements and methodical recommendations for implementation of successive stages of the process of development of new educational programmes are investigated. There is a discrepancy between terminology and aspects that the legal and methodological support is imperfect, in particular requirements regarding the composition of the working group, the rights and obligations of guarantors, and the involvement of stakeholders in the process of developing educational programmes.It is suggested to develop a normative background and methodological recommendations for covering the issue of responsibility of the head of the project group (the guarantor of the educational program), as well as to provide at the normative and methodological levels the possibility of involving not only scientific and pedagogical workers but also other stakeholders in the development of educational programmes.