Develop mechanisms to ensure the quality of the university

a) the object of evaluation is the attractiveness of the university - an integral index set of external and internal factors , it provide , among which is the substance of the underlying quality of university activities;

b) the term " socio-economic assessment " emphasizes its focus on the voices of all persons interested in it and the invariance of shapes and technology assessment;

c) socio-economic assessment as any kind of evaluation presupposes the existence of a particular procedure , indicators and evaluation criteria.

In view of the above, and the analysis of foreign and domestic experience of socio-economic assessment attractiveness of higher education institution must :

- Define ( specify) the list of interested in this kind of evaluation of persons carrying out its purpose and role in the system of quality assurance ;

- Identify and describe the existing formal and informal mechanisms and procedures for the socio- economic assessment of the attractiveness of higher education institutions ;

- Describe approaches to determining the composition and content of indicators and benchmarks " attractiveness" of the university in the context of its socio- economic assessment.

Socio- economic assessment of the attractiveness of the university, first of all, requires specification of the category of persons who for some reason are interested in pursuing it , and in its results . In this context , the entire set of stakeholders represented in the study of the figure can be divided into two groups, which in the socio - economic assessment of the attractiveness of higher education institutions differ in their targets and expectations , which ultimately is reflected in the composition of the purposes and functions of this procedures .

The first group can be represented by the state and society , the primary objective in the evaluation system of universities , and including an assessment of the socio- economic attractiveness , is quality control , ensuring its increase , and public awareness about the level of quality of higher education institutions within the framework of national and international education market .

The main mechanisms for providing solutions to these problems in the Republic of Kazakhstan are state certification , state accreditation and ranking of universities. In proactively RK universities can be conducted independent accreditation .

Figure 7 - Subjects Socio-Economic Assessment attractiveness of higher education

 

Among similar arrangements abroad, along with an evaluation and ranking of universities are independent non- accreditation, accreditation, professional associations, and external audit activities of universities .

As an informal procedure to assess the socio - economic attractiveness of universities society can be considered publication of the results of public opinion research on various aspects of this problem, international foundations and non-governmental organizations , national independent public foundations , organizations and associations.

The second group of people interested in the socio- economic evaluation of schools RK include employers , applicants - potential consumers of educational services ( a single person , and their parents including students ) , university students and the university itself directly . Given existing in the national education system and the country in general procedures for assessing the socio - economic attractiveness of universities basic expectations and target setting this category of persons are to obtain the most complete and objective information on the quality of university activities.

This information allows employers to judge the quality of graduate training - potential employees . Prospective students and their parents - to navigate the offer of educational services and more objectively make their choice in favor of a university and higher education institution - have information about their situation and the level of competitiveness in the national market of educational services.

The concept of " attractiveness" - category more qualitative than quantitative . Its shaping and forming factors are: public opinion , image and reputation of the university , official information about the quality of the educational activities of the university on the basis of certification , accreditation, and determine the ranking of higher education institutions .

Mechanism of formation of socio - economic attractiveness of the university represented in the figure.

He is a two-pronged nature : the formal and informal

Figure 8 - The formation mechanism of the attractiveness of the university

 

On the one hand ( informal ) , the attractiveness of the university should be seen as a way of ( public opinion , rumors ) that it is created by consumers and other services related to the formation of contact audiences . Among them: high school students and teachers , parents, employers , competitors . Despite its subjectivity , this kind of measure the attractiveness of the university greatly affect its image and reputation , and accordingly, the competitiveness of higher education. This effect is stronger the less developed formal mechanisms for evaluation and inform the public about the quality of university activities.

To the university could purposefully control its image formation and attractive to consumers of its services image, it is necessary to systematically investigate the activity needs of the market , carefully analyze and evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of their activities properly position itself in the educational market . Important tool for the attractiveness of the university is its advertising. Effectively organized advertising allows the institute to systematically inform the public of its activities and its quality and thereby prevent the emergence and spread defamatory information.

The formal aspect of the problem of assessing the attractiveness of the university are formally adopted as part of the state or its national education system, mechanisms for its evaluation. Among them in the Republic of Kazakhstan include quality assessment of university activity: state certification , state accreditation , ranking ( ranking of ) universities. At the same certification and accreditation should be viewed as mechanisms forming and enhancing the attractiveness of the university , and a rating system - as a mechanism for assessment and recognition by the state and the public, unless other formal mechanisms for assessing independent opinion no .

Image of the university, in terms of its valuable aspect is two-pronged : on the one hand, it is the basis of the attractiveness and prestige of higher education institution in the eyes of potential consumers of educational services and the results of its operations , the public region and local authorities. On the other hand , the image of the university playing a kind of advertising in the region. For example, high rates of results of UNT ( unified national testing ) of high school graduates and Pavlodar region Pavlodar sustainable form public opinion about the Pavlodar region as a region with high quality training in the field of secondary education. Attractiveness of the university, its prestige and recognition become its brand and often brand the region in whose territory it operates.

Image and attractiveness of the university directly dependent on it such factors as the quality policy and its contents , mission , positioning at the regional and national market of educational services , the level of development and the quality of corporate bonds , the state of internal and external factors that shape and determine their level of quality. Among the latter : the quality of facilities, information and library resources , faculty members , the organization of scientific activity and its focus on solving the problems of the region , the spectrum of ongoing educational programs and special training and their relevance to the needs of the region, the degree of participation of high school graduates in employment and support their career development , pricing policies of the university , which determines the cost of tuition and expenses for training , structure and content of the programs of social and financial support to students, invested in student life and leisure and others.

External factors influencing the formation of the image and attractiveness of the university, as a rule, determined by criteria that reflect the features of its territorial distribution of the unemployment rate and per capita income in the region , the quality of basic training for school-leavers , the nature of specialization and the level of development of industrial capacity and infrastructure of the region and t . etc.

The totality of the information factors shaping the socio- economic viability of the university, in our opinion, can be represented by two blocks : factors related to the field of conditional control of the university and the factors that in relation to the university are uncontrollable .

Block factors of socio - economic assessment , formative level of attractiveness of the university relating to the number of uncontrollable he usually presents the results of a public opinion poll by independent public organizations, trade unions ( alliances ) , international organizations, employers' associations . Abroad and worked out the mechanism of an organized nature , and invariance evaluation forms increases its objectivity. In Kazakhstan, the system of public opinion research and independent assessment of the quality of the educational activity is in its infancy and , along with positive aspects , has some drawbacks due to the problems of geographical coverage and contact audiences representation and validity of respondent groups , which reduces the effectiveness of the procedures and achieves their goals . The university can not directly affect the results of the study independent of public opinion, but they are related to the quality of its educational activities causal relations , however , identifying the causes , higher education institution may in some degree of control over the situation. An important component of the impact on public opinion at this stage , on the one hand, is active advertising , covers all aspects of the university and forming a parallel informal public opinion, and on the other hand - quality corporate bonds with the local community , largely affecting the results of the official public opinion.

Factors in the formation of public opinion, controlled universities should consider those factors which relate to the performance evaluation of the quality of higher education activities within the existing formal assessment procedures , such as certification , accreditation and ranking of . A set of parameters and indicators , qualitative and quantitative level of which depends on the institution , its staff and financial policies , the degree of social responsibility to the local community, students, alumni , etc. Among the factors of this group should include a set of indicators characterizing the state of the material and technical base of the university infrastructure and the educational process , the level of qualifications of the faculty, student body indicators , the organization of scientific activities, etc. The wider and fuller on this group of factors are the parameters and criteria for evaluation , the evaluation itself looks more objective . It is easy to note that this assessment procedure initially not contradict the interests of universities. Moreover, in terms of transparency and public awareness of the evaluation , universities interested in continually improving its capacity : human, scientific, technical , etc.

One of the most common methods of assessing the attractiveness of university activities , is the procedure of ranking universities and determine their rankings. Rating in its essence is a mechanism comparison of the quality of universities, determining the position of the university on the quality of education as a part of higher education institutions of the national education system. From this perspective, rating should be considered as a formal mechanism for the existing socio- economic assessment of the attractiveness of higher education institutions of the Republic of Kazakhstan . As with any procedure , rating system is based on certain principles , puts specific goals and objectives , and performs a role in society and a number of social and informational functions .

Over the past 20 years, not only in the media but also in professional associations and government organizations spread widely different rating systems in higher education . Despite the fact that the results of the rating, a number of objective and subjective reasons , universities are put into question , the alternative procedure it does not currently exist.

However, the desire to increase the objectivity of rating system and bring it to the specifics of the structure of higher education in each country and the existence of universities led to a wide variety of technologies and forms of the rating .

The ranking system is widespread universities abroad and represented rating system media (media) , professional associations and ministries responsible for education , there are problems , including a problem with the awarding of the serial number rating. At universities can be a big gap in the positions , but at a minimum difference of points. Abroad, this problem is solved by combining high schools in the group with a similar level of quality (Germany), instead of assigning a numerical estimate university ( serial number ), or the publication of a list of only a certain number of universities included in the top group , that is, as leaders (USA , Poland).

One of the problems of ranking universities of Kazakhstan and the problem is the reliability of the information provided by them . Under the existing procedures for determining ranking universities in preparing the necessary information on their own and has the character of limited use . Publicized only get results : university scored points by activity and rank universities of the republic . Such information is important in itself , but its objectivity is largely dependent on how to objectively and honestly evaluate themselves universities. In this situation, organizing important point could be the availability of baseline information of universities interested in her person , for example by placing it on the site PWS Republic of Kazakhstan. Transparency of the rating increases the credibility of the public to which it is targeted .

Despite the fact that the rating of the university - a procedure for external quality assessment , respectively, and the attractiveness of the university, promoting quality improvement, it is logically presupposes the existence of a similar vnutrivuzovskoy procedure. Only in this case, the institution is able to purposefully shape their image and more attractive to consumers of educational services image.

Intrahigh content model for the formation and evaluation of attractiveness is determined by several factors, primarily adopted in the national education system procedures and mechanisms , directly or indirectly shaping and assess the attractiveness of the university.

Despite the specific models used by universities quality management conceptually Intrahigh model generation and evaluation of its appeal , in our view , a schematic may look as the model shown in Fig .

The starting point in the formation of the attractiveness of the university are the quality policy and priorities of its development ( increase , improvement ) , which are derived from the mission of higher education and are reflected in it .

Figure 9 - A model of the attractiveness of the university

 

Evaluating the resource potential, defining the tasks of development and based on the vision of the role of the university in regional community and national educational space , Innovative University of Eurasia defines its mission as follows: "Preparation of competitive specialists based on a system of continuous education and integration into the global educational environment through the development of Corporate Communications and innovative technologies to promote sustainable development of the region and state. "

With regard to the content of the mission and quality policy institution has positioned itself in the educational market . Effective positioning - the basis of the formation of a "good" reputation of the university , and therefore its attractiveness . Despite the fact that the content of university ranking factors logically from his mission , in their composition must attend one , two factors that differentiate the institution from its competitors and providing him an 'extra' appeal. Among these factors positioning InEu - openness to cooperation , comfortable learning environment and the atmosphere of mutual respect between teachers and students .

Currently in Kazakhstan society constituents assess the attractiveness of the university , in our opinion, are: University Ranking (formal standard procedure ) , the image of the institution ( the set of informal instruments) , pricing and promotional activities of universities. At the same rating and image of the university characterize and evaluate the degree of attractiveness of higher education , and advertising - forming the image , and thus the attractiveness of the university. The degree of attractiveness of the university, as a rule, is reflected in the dynamics of the set. Therefore, for the most comprehensive and objective assessment of their attractiveness Pavlodar University (now InEu ) for 7 years already conducts a survey of applicants and their parents as customers of educational services of the university.

The purpose of the survey - to find out how correlates decisions about applicants to enroll in college with its promotional activities , which forms awareness of the university better known among the applicants and what information about their high school are more interested in ( Appendix D ) . Periodically , it is appropriate to sample surveys and among employers. On the one hand , employees of enterprises could be potential consumers of the university, and on the other , the results of the survey will help identify more effective form and content mechanisms of formation of public opinion , that is an important point in the organization of activities to enhance the attractiveness of the university.

Pricing policy of the university , on the one hand, it is an indicator of the quality of educational services, and the other - the instrument by which the university has implemented a policy of its social responsibility ( reflected in high school students in the system support , including financial support) . For objective reasons , for many applicants pricing is one of the decisive factors in the choice of the university as a place of learning, respectively , and a factor in assessing its attractiveness. Analysis of pricing policy InEu suggest that at sufficiently high quality training tuition costs, for example, on economic specialties , set in the range of average prices : 10-15% lower than in public schools (PSU im.Toraygyrova ) and 10 -15% higher than in the private universities in the region ( Pavlodar branch of Almaty Institute of Economics and Statistics ) . A significant advantage of the pricing policy is InEu system of benefits and other forms of financial support to students , presented in the table.

Factors pricing policy	Content factors of pricing policy
Tuition	- Tuition for state grants : cost estimate is determined by the state; - Training in educational grants local government structures (grants regional akim ) funding is provided in the amount of state cost estimates ; - Training on a contractual basis : tuition fee is determined by the university training courses and professions , depending on the costs of training , the size of the state estimates and the cost of education for a similar function ( given the level of quality of training ) in higher educational institutions, Competitors
System of financial support to students	- A system of benefits based student ( academic success ) and participation in public life of the faculty and the university ; - Family benefits ; - Differentiated benefit to enroll in college at the average score of the certificate ; - Scholarship honors students allocated akim ; - Scholarship , established by the university and its structural divisions ; - Sponsored grants ; - Individual scholarships for students of the results of the career-oriented activities - Development of a set volume of hours in the structural units of the university to offset tuition

Table 3 - Detail pricing policy factors InEu

The weak link is the pricing policy of the University of the absence of conditions fixing the tuition fees for the period of study . Dynamism of tuition , regardless of its level of indexing data ( high or low) , lowers price attractiveness of the university for its potential entrants.

Despite the fact that the attractiveness of the university largely qualitative category , there is a system of quantitative indicators by which to judge the degree of attractiveness of the higher education institution and its educational services. Among them , in our opinion , are the following: the dynamics of the set; passing score and GPA UNT credited to specialty or high school, as a whole; the stability of the student population ; fluidity of the faculty ; statistics of employment of graduates and others. An important indicator of the attractiveness of the university is its involvement in the life of the regional community and the impact of its development , the extent of which can be implemented to estimate the amount of initiative and self-supporting research on the problems of the region , membership or participation in regional PPP professional alliances and other associative structures , the number of university -funded projects carried out including joint employers , local government agencies , etc.

In a competitive environment, the concept of " attractiveness" and the degree (level) of the attractiveness of each particular institution rather dynamic. If the concept of " attractiveness" is a derivative of the dynamics of the needs for educational services , the dynamics of the attractiveness of the university , especially in terms of its rating depends on the tasks set by the university and its competitors, and the composition of the implemented actions in this direction . University can set a goal - to become one of 15 ( 5 or 10 ) best universities of Kazakhstan. Can pursue the same objective and universities competitors . Despite the fact that the university will take steps to improve its rating ( and, consequently , their attractiveness ) , the official rating of the university can not only increase but also decrease. In this regard , the university needs to systematically examine and analyze their activities. Identify their strengths and weaknesses . Identify and assess their potential . To see and assess the threats that exist for him or can potentially exist in the educational market and which may adversely affect its reputation and prestige . SWOT- analysis is advantageously carried out at the end of the school year , but the current work on the study , analysis and evaluation of demand and monitor the quality and attractiveness of the university for consumers should exercise regularly , throughout the year .