DEFINITION AND EVALUATION OF COMPETITORS IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF INTERNATIONAL JOINT EDUCATIONAL PROJECTS

The article is devoted to the problems of defining and evaluating competitors within the framework of competitive benchmarking projects in education. Various approaches to defining the definitions of "benchmarking" and "partner benchmarking" in domestic scientific practice have been studied. The content field of the specified definitions was clarified by formulating the author's definitions of "benchmarking" and "partner benchmarking in education". Peculiarities of partner benchmarking in education, which are determined by the differences between the educational process and the business processes of industrial enterprises and commercial organizations, have been studied. Partnership benchmarking in education requires a more creative approach, its algorithms should be more flexible and less standardized than those used in benchmarking partnership projects of business entities. In the research process, it was demonstrated that certain partner benchmarking tools used by commercial companies can, with certain adaptations, be used in partner benchmarking projects in education. In particular, this applies to such a tool as the identification of reference leaders by individual positions in the survey process. It is substantiated that it is more expedient to use process-oriented benchmarking in education given the fact that the key object of partner benchmarking in education is the educational process and educational practices that are its components.