The Role of Higher Education in Developing National Competitiveness: The Case of Ukraine.

• Author: Gardner, Greg

INTRODUCTION

In the first quarter of the 21st century, much of the world has been in economic competition with each other, within the framework of an interconnected global economy. While this competition is between individuals and individual firms, nations are also significant actors on the global economic competitive stage. While data from the World Economic Forum (Schwab, 2019) suggests that competitiveness levels among nations are gradually converging, the trend is developing slowly and will not be complete (if ever) before the end of the 21st century. For individuals and businesses interested in competing in a global economy, the level of national competitiveness remains deeply important to future success.

This paper focuses on the nation of Ukraine and examines its level of economic competitiveness as compared to other nations, using four respected international comparison tools. It further explores Ukraine's higher education system as a powerful element of the nation's competitive advantage. One Ukrainian university is examined as a case study to provide examples of best practices in furthering national competitiveness levels.

UKRAINE'S NATIONAL COMPETITIVENESS

The Global Federation of Competitiveness Councils in its annual report "Principles of Global Competitiveness" describes trends in global competition. Comparing the principles of competitiveness in 2019 and 2020, Holliday (2019) demonstrated the increased importance of innovation and digitalization. The economy's ability to adapt and respond to challenges, as well as the necessity for people around the world to learn and master global skills, has begun to play a key role. Immense importance was also attached to partnerships and global cooperation.

There are numerous reports from various sources that measure and report on the competitiveness levels and aspects of nations. For this research, four were chosen as being the most consistent and being available within the entire period of study. Results were collected from each report between 2013 and 2019. While some 2020 data was available at the time of this research, it was not consistently available nor were methodologies consistently applied, in the face of the pandemic's impact, so it has not been included. The four reports chosen were:

* Global Competitiveness Index 4.0 (GCI4.0), produced by the World Economic Forum

* The Prosperity Index, produced by the Legatum Institute

* The IMD World Competitiveness Ranking (IMD) produced by the Swiss International Institute for Management

* The Social Progress Index, developed and produced by the non-profit organization The Social Progress Imperative

These reports all offer a consistent and replicable methodology for comparing various nations across time. Some are primarily focused on economic competition, while others address broader social elements that illustrate more nuanced aspects of a nation's competitiveness. This research suggests that Ukraine is below the median scores in most indices measuring/comparing economic competitiveness but has a disproportionate lead in its higher education system that raises its ranking across multiple measures from all four different global comparisons.

UKRAINE AND THE WEF GLOBAL COMPETITIVENESS INDEX

According to the Global Competitiveness Index by the World Economic Forum (WEF), Ukraine was ranked eighty-five out of the 141 nations included in the report in 2019 (Schwab, 2019). Between 2013 and 2019, Ukraine held a mean average ranking of 81.9, with the lowest ranking coming in 2014 at 76. Figure 1 below shows the rankings by year (Schwab, 2013 - 2019).

Figure 1 - Ranking of Ukraine in the Global Competitiveness Index, 2013-2019 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 Ukraine 84 76 79 85 81 83 85 Note: Table made from line graph. The WEF classifies countries by regional affiliation and income level. According to these classifications, Ukraine belongs to the nations of the Eurasian region and, in terms of income, to the group of nations with lower average income level.

The WEF assesses competitiveness of each nation based on a set of twelve pillars of competitiveness. Figure 2 above shows the comparison of Ukraine's overall ranking for each pillar in 2013 and then in 2019. The general pattern of rankings remained the same between 2013 and 2019, however, Ukraine moved from a ranking of 124 in Product Market in 2013 to 57th in that pillar in 2019. Ukraine's weakest performance in 2019 comes in the areas of macroeconomic stability at 133 and financial markets at 136 (out of 141 nations studied). Both categories saw declines from 2013, driven at least in part by the military conflicts in two regions in Eastern Ukraine and the military...