FEATURES OF CONSULTING ACTIVITIES IN EUROPEAN HIGHER EDUCATION INSTITUTIONS

Abstract

The relevance of the review study is stipulated by the conditions of Ukraine's integration into the European space, which opens up additional opportunities for the development of the higher education system and promotes potential access to new knowledge markets from the European Union. The purpose of the article is to study the content of consulting and analyse the peculiarities of consulting activities in European higher education institutions. The article emphasises the interdisciplinary nature of the research. The peculiarities of consulting activities have led to the peculiarity of the methodological foundations of the study in this paper. The study is based on the principle of systematicity, which determines the consideration of consulting activities as a unique and autonomous integrity, none of the elements of which can be arbitrarily replaced or discarded. The subjective approach of the study characterises the subjective orientation (interaction) of the subjects of the educational process, which is determined mainly by external situations as its objects. That is why the creators and implementers of consulting activities are the subjects of the educational process with the appropriate way of thinking, motivation, and relationships formed by a certain type of culture. To study the features of consulting activities in European higher education institutions, theoretical and empirical research methods were used: analysis, synthesis, comparison, generalisation and systematisation. The article analyses the practical basis of consulting activities in European higher education institutions. According to the analysis of the official websites of higher education institutions in European countries, the main directions of development of consulting activities are considered, the factors influencing the functioning of the consulting services market are identified, and the risks of consulting services in the higher education system of European countries are analysed. The article clarifies the current state of development and implementation of consulting services in European higher education institutions. In the course of the analysis of higher education institutions in European countries, the tools, methods, and strategies for designing management consulting activities were evaluated. The practical significance of the research results lies in the possibility of using the current new directions and prospects for the development of the consulting services market for the development of educational entities and higher education institutions. The scientific novelty of the research is to substantiate the components of the qualitative development of the European educational consulting services market. It has been found that the transition of Ukrainian higher education institutions to new principles of consulting activities meets the conditions of European integration policy and creates new requirements for the organisation of an appropriate management decision support system. The study provides for the development of a concept for a system for designing consulting activities in Ukrainian higher education institutions and stimulating consulting activities by the state.