Public Management in the Activity of Educational Institutions in the Context of Autonomy of their Work (Under the Conditions of Crises and Covid-19)

Abstract

Budanova Liana, Filyanina Nelya, Nosyk Oksana, Andriyenko Mykola, Slepchenko Anzhela, Zastrozhnikova Irina

Decentralization of public management in the sphere of tertiary education in developed countries has led to the spread of similar trends in developing countries and countries with economies in transition. The academic paper assesses the effectiveness of forms of decentralization of public management on the basis of statistical analysis of quality indicators of tertiary education system of Hungary, Poland, Romania and Ukraine. As a result, the effectiveness of decentralization has been confirmed, provided that the transformation of public management institutions is ensured. Forms of decentralization determine its effectiveness. Common problems of tertiary education systems have been identified, which have led to the need for decentralization: the need for quality educational services, increasing the level of public access to tertiary education, financial pressure on central budgets. It has been determined that territorial and functional deregulation was aimed mainly at self-financing of tertiary educational institutions, formation of a competitive market of educational services, integration of the private sector into the public one for the development of the quality of state tertiary education. The basic advantages of decentralization have been highlighted in the academic paper, namely: 1) increasing the level of enrollment of the population to tertiary educational institutions due to accessibility; 2) reducing the level of state expenditure on education; 3) improving the quality of state tertiary educational institutions, meeting the requirements of the labor market; 4) actualization of the autonomy of higher educational institutions uner the conditions of pandemic of Covid-19. Three distinct models of decentralization of tertiary education have been identified, namely: territorial decentralization in Poland, asymmetric decentralization with an emphasis on self-financing in Romania, and functional decentralization in Hungary and Ukraine. The basic features of decentralization of the studied countries have been highlighted, namely: flexibility, adaptability of legislation, transformation of public management institutions, deregulation of government functions, change of financing tools with the possibility of attracting funds from private partners (business), expansion of access to educational services, formation of hybrid private-state institutions with corporate status, reduction of financial pressure, supervision and control. The need for decentralization and improvement of its forms within the conditions of a pandemic of Covid-19 has been confirmed.