Mariia Bahorka

Nowadays, the procedures for stimulating the improvement of the quality of higher education in Ukraine are mainly based on periodic expert evaluations. Besides, existing metrics of university efficiency are usually imperfect due to the frequent negative effects of Campbell’s Law and Goodhart’s Law. In addition, the war significantly limited resources for external quality assurance of educational programs. Given this, the aim of this paper was to develop a methodology for an additional self-regulation system of continual improvement of the quality and efficiency of educational activities of Ukrainian universities. The study is based on the advantages of the quantitative approach, measurement methods, and algorithmization in the management system of higher education. As a result, key indicators for the formation of national rankings have been developed by different segments. Moreover, the study elaborated algorithms and mechanisms to constantly encourage higher education institutions to improve quality and efficiency. The paper proposes preventive procedures to reduce the negative effects of unfair achievement of key performance indicators. The result of applying the methodology is additionally acquired or partially lost by the university the volume of license rights for the training of specialists in the current year. This will help curb the process of mass education with a low level of quality. In addition, the proposed system will balance the weaknesses of the accreditation expertise procedure, as well as actively stimulate the independent striving of each educational program for sustainable development and continual progress.

Acknowledgment
To the Armed Forces of Ukraine (https://www.mil.gov.ua/) and the democratic world (https://bit.ly/3BLtuem) for the protection of the future of the Ukrainian State and its people. To the National Agency for Higher Education Quality Assurance for the possibility to take part in accreditation expertise and consulting evaluation of educational programs in universities of Ukraine (https://en.naqa.gov.ua/). Also, the appearance of this alternative idea was facilitated by the declared goal of the World Bank project “Ukraine Improving Higher Education for Results” (ID P171050), namely: to improve the efficiency, conditions for quality, and transparency in Ukraine’s higher education system (https://bit.ly/3vpx2iM).

The study aims to test whether increasing a share of R&D expenditure in GDP strengthens the level of innovation development in Ukraine compared with top countries in the Global Innovation Index. It models the impact of changing a share of R&D expenditure in GDP on the level of innovation development based on 10 countries-leaders in GII 2022 and Ukraine. Correlation analysis proved the existence of a relationship between the levels of R&D expenditure (as percent of GDP) and innovation development (the overall score of GII); its strength and direction are characterized (for 2011–2020). The results show that in GII’s top countries, the relationship between innovation development and R&D expenditure is direct in 70% of the sample’s countries, mostly with high and very high relationship power without time lag or 1-2-year time lag. This relationship is inverse in Ukraine, with high relationship power and a 1-year time lag. The system dynamic linear panel-data model is built to determine and formalize the impact of changing a share of R&D expenditure in GDP on the level of innovation development for GII’s top countries and the linear regression model – for Ukraine. For GII’s top countries, it is confirmed that with an increase in R&D expenditures by 1%, innovation development potentially increases by an average of 2.71%, and in Ukraine – it decreases by an average of 4.8%. This discrepancy is explained by the need to improve state policy and regulatory framework in innovation development and its financing in Ukraine.