SUBJECTIVITY AND OBJECTIVITY OF ASSESSING THE COMPETITIVENESS OF EDUCATIONAL SERVICES
M. A. Abramova1,2, E. V. Balganova3
1Institute of Philosophy and Law of the Siberian Branch of Russian Academy of Sciences, Novosibirsk, Russia
2Novosibirsk State Pedagogical University, Novosibirsk, Russia
3Siberian Institute of Management of the Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration, Novosibirsk, Russia
Keywords: market of educational services, labor market, educational program, university, methods and criteria for the quality assessment, competitiveness of the educational program, subjectivity and objectivity of assessment
Abstract
Introduction. The authors, referring to the trends in the development of the modern market of educational services, pose the problem of assessing the competitiveness of universities and their educational products, namely, the subjectivity and objectivity of the criteria used. Methodology and methods of the research. The analysis of the criteria used by various methods for assessing the competitiveness of universities is based on institutional, synergetic and communicative approaches. The authors rely on the perception of the university not only as a translator of the social order but also within the framework of the synergetic theory, as a cumulative embodiment of the private opinion of each participant in the process of preparing a student, including him/herself. The result of studying the influence of individual interrelated factors on the learning process is the construction of multi-factor models of indices, including those reflecting customer satisfactions. The results of the research. The paper considers the features of the application of foreign and domestic criteria for assessing the competitiveness of a university and its educational programs, the methodology for compiling university ratings in the context of comparing the subjective and objective nature of the reflection of ongoing processes. The authors draw attention to the imperfection of the existing evaluation methods, which are directly related to the market conditions of educational services and do not take into account the needs of the labour market, state and regional orders. The issue of replacing the real competitiveness of universities and their educational products developed taking into account the projected demand for educational services in various regions of the country, with competition conducted in the wake of fashionable world trends for modern professions, is also pointed out. The authors note with concern the high probability of negative effects from the use of modern criteria for assessing the competitiveness of universities, one of which is an excessive fascination with formal indicators. Conclusion. The presented analysis of the criteria used by various methods for assessing the competitiveness of universities allowed the authors to conclude that the “objective” assessment of the competitiveness of universities depends on a large number of subjective factors. The dominance of subjective indicators in the resulting aggregate assessment of the university and its educational programs leads to a distortion of the picture of the real quality of the educational services provided. This situation leads to the construction of an inadequate strategy for obtaining an education by applicants, and as a result, it disorients students in building their future professional careers and evaluating their opportunities for implementation in their native region.
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