Mariia Sandul

The modern approaches towards higher education systems management often tend to focus on separate universities’ performance, lacking the systemic view of the overall higher education systems’ competitiveness. Thus, the policymakers often fail in tailoring the higher education strategies to the mission of higher education in contemporary society.
The article focuses on providing a systemic insight into the global competitive positioning of the national higher education systems. Based on the suggested ranking methodology, the authors perform the evaluation and ranking of 94 higher education systems, highlighting the limitations of this method, and the cluster analysis, identifying 3 types of their competitive positioning: leaders, followers, and underperformers. Based on Pearson coefficients of skewness and kurtosis calculation, the article shows that globally the inequalities in terms of higher education enrolment rate are decreasing, while those of R&D institutions quality and university-industry collaboration in research remain unchanged. Therefore, upgrading higher education quality assurance systems becomes the main strategic priority for the developing countries in terms of ensuring their higher education systems’ competitiveness. Given the levelling of higher education attainment and its quality worldwide, the authors anticipate further specialization of the universities and broadening of their role within the national innovation system. The article shows that the more comprehensive the approach for evaluating the higher education systems performance – the better the policymakers may benefit in terms of higher education strategic management.

Type of the article: Research Article

Abstract
Assessing the ESG readiness of the Ukrainian banking sector is important in the context of growing global attention to sustainable finance, Ukraine’s aspiration to align with EU regulations, and overcoming war consequences. The study examines the ESG practices of Ukraine’s largest banks and their disclosure, providing a framework for assessing their ESG commitment and maturity. The study aims to identify the level of ESG practices development, including their disclosure, in Ukraine’s largest banks. The paper suggest that this ESG maturity scoring approach may be relevant for emerging sustainability markets. The scoring methodology comprises two sub-indices: the first evaluates ESG information disclosure through content analysis of official websites, while the second uses frequency analysis to evaluate ESG-related terminology in banks’ annual reports. The results show that ESG practices of the largest banks in Ukraine and their integration into corporate reporting are on the preparatory stage, with most banks exhibiting a low or moderate level of ESG maturity. Foreign-owned and state-owned banks demonstrate better results. There is no interconnectedness between banks’ asset size and ESG maturity. The paper highlights the significance of regulatory support in accelerating ESG integration within Ukraine’s banking sector. The proposed framework can serve as a diagnostic tool for regulators, investors, and bank managers to monitor progress, benchmark practices, and guide strategic alignment with EU sustainability requirements. The findings contribute to a broader understanding of how ESG principles can be applied in uncertain financial ecosystems, offering insights for other developing or conflict-affected countries.

Acknowledgments
The article was prepared within the framework of the state-funded research topic Financial’ ecosystem transformation in the post-war recovery of Ukraine on the basis of resilience and sustainable development’ (state registration number 0125U000541) performed at Kyiv National Economic University named after Vadym Hetman.