ACTIVATION OF ACADEMIC MOBILITY OF STUDENTS OF HIGHER EDUCATION INSTITUTIONS AS A MEANS OF ENHANCING THEIR COMPETITIVENESS: HOME AND GREEK EXPERIENCE

Abstract

The article is devoted to the coverage of home and Greek experience in providing the academic mobility of students of higher education institutions. It’s found out that several factors contributed to its development in Ukraine, such as: improving the legislative base, signing an agreement on a visa-free regime with Ukraine, improving and applying the mutual recognition procedure for education documents, and Ukraine's accession to the Erasmus + program. It has been stated that the following negative internal processes hinder the activation of academic mobility: the country economic characteristics (the difference between the standard of living in Ukraine and the countries of the European Union), the quality and cost of studying and living, the availability of household services, compliance with European educational standards, insufficient level of foreign language skills, lack of information students get concerning exchange programs, etc. The peculiarities of the realization of the right of Greek universities students to academic mobility are analyzed basing on the example of law faculties of Democritus University of Thrace and the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens. It has been established that students of Greek universities can take part in the following programs: for studying in foreign partner universities; for participating in various types of practical programs in foreign partner universities. The procedure of students’ participation in practical programs is described in detail, namely the length of practical training, the categories of people who can participate in the relevant programs, the list of documents to be submitted for participation in the program, the criteria for selecting applicants, the size of the scholarship are found out. The emphasis is on the important innovation of relevant programs, which consists in the fact that Erasmus + provides students with free language Internet-support in the study of the appropriate foreign language before and during their stay abroad. The article analyzes the peculiarities of the organization of the master's degree programs in Greek universities together with foreign universities giving the identic diploma of a master's degree. In particular, the master’s program “Specialized Public Law”, organized by the legal department of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens together with the University of Montesquieu-Bordeaux IV (France), is described. Taking into account the experience of the Greek universities, the range of issues that need to be resolved in the national system of higher education is highlighted. These include  improving of state financing of exchange programs; comprehensive informing of students about such programs; organization of joint master’s degree programs of home and foreign universities; increasing the level of foreign language communicative competence of students.