Developing Trends and Problems of Non-State Universities in Ukraine

The title of the paper clearly defines its contents. Thus the authoress initially presents a rather brief history of non-state Ukrainian universities, to indicate the most essential problems they have struggled with since their beginnings. Historically, two main periods are distinguished here: pre-communist and postcommunist ones. The beginnings of modern university education date back to the eighties. What made it possible was a complex set of political, legal, social, economic and cultural factors. The number of those schools grew quickly to 500. Most of them aiming at easy profits underwent staff, location and facility problems. Hence they met with a rather negative social response. The situation has become stable after 1996. By that time, stable legal grounds for this kind of education were created. Actually there are 188 non-state universities in Ukraine i.e.19% of all universities & colleges and 12% of all students learn there. The most popular faculties are economy, administration, computer studies, but also scholarly and social studies, demanding lower financial input.