FACTORS OF ENSURING FINANCIAL STABILITY OF UNIVERSITIES DURING THE PANDEMIC AND MILITARY AGGRESSION OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION

Abstract

The issue of identification and systematization of factors to ensure the financial stability of universities is due to the transformations and a new paradigm of the higher education institutions' activities. Covid-19 crisis, reduction of budget funding, a decrease of the students’ enrollment, change of the forms of the learning process, requests of potential applicants for educational services, lack of income by universities in a pandemic, ability to adapt and maintain educational and scientific activities during uncertainty are tools to ensure the financial stability of universities. The aim of the article is to study the impact factors and to determine the classification features of the financial stability of the university by systematizing and explaining them. The research was carried out using a dialectical method to substantiate discussion approaches to determining the factors of financial stability of the higher education institutions; a method of analysis to identify and determine the influence of factors in accordance with the classification features; synthesis method for combining certain features and factors influencing financial stability into a holistic classification. The main scientific result of the study is a holistic classification of factors to ensure the financial stability of universities according to certain features. Preliminary research in this direction and views of the scientific community are the scientific basis for identifying the factors of financial stability of the higher education institutions. The classification contains the distribution of factors based on the following: depending on the duration – current and strategic; regarding the nature of the impact – external and internal; by the degree of impact on the financial result – incomes and expenses; concerning the components of the economic model – factors of direct and indirect influence, distributed in relation to the value proposition – key resources, key activities, key partners, stakeholders, channels of supply and promotion, financial model. Significant influence on the financial stability of the university is exerted by behavioral or indirect factors, in particular: image, reputation; stimulating (marketing); institutional; managerial. Systematization of factors according to the proposed classification is a tool for making managerial decisions to ensure the current and strategic financial stability of the university.