Higher education management in Ukraine: Will generation change help us transform it faster?

Abstract

Purpose. Despite relatively successful democratic transformation in various areas, Ukraine still has little progress in reforming the system of education. Changes that are taking place (e.g. new legislation is being adopted) do not have expected effect and are often too surface-oriented. The article discusses one of the possible causes for this - high median age and long term duration of university leadership. It is argued in the work that, while senior academics in educational facilities contribute by sharing profound knowledge and experience with the students, electing leaders solely on the basis of their seniority slows the pace of reforms and causes preservation of Soviet traditions in educational governance. Methodology. The results of the study were obtained through the application of the following methods: analysis and synthesis in the study of strategies, programs, curricula, ratings, which allow analyzing the main directions of educational and scientific activity in Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv; systematic and comparative methods that were used in determining the essence and peculiarities of universities leadership. Findings. The authors argue that among many other important factors, generation change in university leadership can help the Ukrainian universities take a leap to modernization. It is beyond any doubts that, while university governance is not a single contributing factor for success, higher educational facilities will benefit from such generation change in many ways. First, being in the system for many years, current universities' leaders fail to think outside of the box and recognize the innovations that must be implemented. Moreover, since the average age of rectors, faculty deans and department chairs is rather high, in the Ukrainian situation it means that their career progressed during the Soviet era or in the first years of independence. Taking the position, they had a different model of governance and higher education in general, dominating in their mindsets, so made attempts to recreate them in their domains. Finally, most university leaders at different levels lack knowledge needed for effective modernization of their facilities such as management training or knowledge of foreign language. The only reason to be elected is based on academic merit, which is important but should be complemented by other skills as today the rector, dean and even department chair are doing more and more representative work, fundraising, media relations and others. Realities of the Ukrainian universities show that a generation change is an inevitable prerequisite for their successful transformation. Originality. The work does not intend to discriminate a person solely on the basis of age or the number of years in office. However, with regard to the Ukrainian situation, a generation change entails more than simply kicking the older people out. It means minimizing the influence of Soviet legacy on the universities and new additions to it, created in the first post-Soviet years. Those, arguing for importance of 'new blood' in the Ukrainian governance at all levels, often state that the young and unexperienced will bring less harm by trying to innovate, than those, trying to keep status quo and resisting change. From this perspective, analysis of leadership of the Ukrainian universities demonstrates that, potentially, it could be one of the impediments to transformation. Practical value. The obtained results allow us to affirm that a university leadership change is an inevitable prerequisite for the Ukrainian universities successful transformation.