HIGHER EDUCATION QUALITY ASSURANCE: CONTEMPORARY TENDENCIES

The article deals with the quality of higher education in the context of global trends in higher education development, taking into account global and international influences that encourage discussion of the problem of higher education quality assurance. The concept of quality has been considered and the lack of consensus regarding its conceptualization and evaluation has been stated. The higher education quality has been considered from a pedagogical point of view – as a systematic methodological category reflecting the degree of conformity of the result to the goal set, as well as the correspondence of the product to the consumers’ requirements and as a set of its characteristics determining the degree of suitability of the product for its intended use. It has been noted that the concept of quality and its indicators are debatable due to the presence of a range of stakeholders – persons interested in higher education. The difference in the value of higher education quality for each of the interested parties has been determined by the presence of their own interests and their own vision of quality. Globalization, the massification of higher education and the ICT revolution have been stressed in the article as factors that have radically changed the higher education environment, creating new challenges for governments, higher education institutions and other stakeholders. Higher education quality assurance has been defined as a global problem, and the growing attention to this problem has been noted in connection with the rapid development of higher education and the increase in the cost of educational services for the state and the public. Recent trends in higher education have been reviewed and their advantages and disadvantages have been noted.