The «Duales Studium» Adaptation as an Innovation in Ukrainian Tertiary Education: Management Aspects and Results
Authors: Davlikanova Olena , Hofstetter Helmut 
Published: October 2020

The fourth industrial revolution and integration of the human capital concept into policymaking attract more attention to the ways of shortening the gap between the demands of the laboгr market and the «supply» of educational establishments. One of the ways to approach ensuring the efficient response is to export and adapt the «made in Germany» dual education/studies models, especially in tertiary education. Ukraine had had no similar systemic approach before the launch of a project on the importing of the dual higher education or dual studies («Duales Studium», DS) by the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung Office in Ukraine in 2013 (FES-Ukraine). The article aims to present state of the art with the «import» of the Duales Studium as of 2020 and main findings of the author’s questionnaire survey on the results of the first year of the national experiment in Ukrainian higher educational establishments (HEEs) under the supervision of the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine (MES). The author’s questionnaire survey was carried out from February to August 2020. The respondents included 27 higher educational establishments listed in the ministerial Order №1296 on the launch of the national wide dual studies experiment to be conducted in 2019-2023. The answers were obtained from the 23 HEEs, though not all of the answers were valid. The data obtained allowed to do both quantitative and qualitative analysis. The findings show that principles of the dual studies may be successfully adapted and implemented in the Ukrainian tertiary education, despite the lack of many components of German dual system, as well as some misinterpretations or purposeful misuse of the suggested mechanisms on the ground. Ukrainian dual studies may not be called a «dual system» yet, as many elements are still lacking and some cannot be re-created in the national context, but it is a form of studies that may already now be chosen by a student, as is demonstrated by 60 cases implemented by 17 HEEs on the examples of 31 majors and 441 students, out of which 123 are female and 318 male. Therefore, the obtained experience is a source of valuable information for recommendations to the stakeholders (educational institutions, employers and their associations, students, ministries, the Government and local self-government bodies etc.) aimed at boosting their further cooperation. Thus, it creates favourable conditions for training a capable workforce, which is one of the factors of compatibility and growth of both individual economic actors and the national economy as a whole. The authors’ contributions are as follows: elaboration of the draft questionnaire, description of the methodology, data analysis of the first year of the dual studies introduction by Ukrainian HEEs, conclusions and recommendations (Olena Davlikanova); input on experience of Dual Studies organization in Germany from the perspective of companies and HEEs (Prof. Helmut Hofstetter).

Keywords
dual higher education, dual form of education, dual studies, dual study models, dual tertiary education, Duales Studium, employers, higher educational institutions, human capital, Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine, pilot project, students, tertiary education.