FORMATION OF A COMPETITIVE ENVIRONMENT IN THE EDUCATIONAL SPHERE: THE ROLE OF EDUCATIONAL PROVIDERS

Abstract

The article examines the state of development of the competitive environment of the educational industry. Most studies of the current and future state of higher education agree on several conclusions. One such conclusion is that business ethics and practices are becoming acceptable in higher education. While many trends facing the education industry are now well known and have direct strategic implications (e.g., the need to maintain the public good as an important component of the university's mission, the need to adopt budgeting strategies to balance declining state funding), several other trends have multifaceted impacts for higher education. A detailed analysis of strengths and weaknesses, opportunities and threats indicates that the higher education sector must respond to the main contemporary challenges that have been analysed. The primary focus of educational providers is on maintaining institutional reputation and providing services to society. Educational institutions must become entrepreneurial, and managers must be guided by business thinking in their activities, act as leaders and balance prestige and market principles in their decisions. Competition among research universities is not only mostly focused on research, but also touches on a wide range of issues: competition for students, grants, discoveries, patents, scientists, public and private resources, etc. Creativity and innovation are important in higher education and science, and therefore, in the focus of attention of scientists and management practitioners, four problems can be identified that need to be solved and the relevance of which is gradually increasing: growing tension between competition and community (society); the burden on individuals (scientists, teachers, managers) and higher education institutions, which arises due to numerous competitive competitions; change in relations between the organization of activities of the HE and individual researchers (employees); the influence of ratings and status competition on the general innovative ability of the education system.