ЕТИЧНА СКЛАДОВА СОЦІАЛЬНОЇ МІСІЇ УНІВЕРСИТЕТУ
ETHICAL COMPOSITION OF THE SOCIAL MISSION OF THE UNIVERSITY

Summary/Abstract: Problem setting. Strategic priorities of the development of our state give increased attention to higher education as a social institution, which primarily aims at enriching the person with the «capital of competencies» necessary for it to succeed in self-realization in the postmodern world. The main disadvantage of such a paradigm of reforming higher education lies in the excessive specialization, which loses the humanistic essence of the educational space, in lowering the status of the humanities, which must serve as semantic signs in conditions of complete uncertainty in the world. This actualizes the problem of the ethical component of the social mission of universities.Recent research and publications analysis. The idea of the university and comprehension of its role in society was the subject of attention of eminent thinkers, philosophers and theorists of the post-industrial society. The overwhelming majority of scientific research is devoted to the analysis of the classical university as a historical and cultural phenomenon, as well as problems of its functioning and modernization in the information society. However, despite the large number and magnitude of publications on the prospects and challenges of higher education in the beginning XXI century, the problem of the ethical component of university education can not be considered complete and fully developed.Paper objective. The purpose of the paper is to determine the importance of the ethical component of the university’s social mission and the ratio of the general cultural and narrow-professional, utilitarian component of higher education.Paper main body. In the modern world, the diminution of moral feelings, especially among young people, is widespread, and as a result, fuzzy life benchmarks, moral guidelines, passive civic attitudes, loneliness, despondency, pessimism. According to the authors, this determines the need for a modern understanding of ethics as a component of the university’s social mission. Determining the place and role of ethics in the context of the educational process is an extremely difficult task in the complex way of forming the valuable world of man as a representative of the nation and humanity. Recognition of the significance of ethics as a normative component of the system of higher education is an attributive feature of the modern world educational space. Attention to the development of the general competences of a university graduate is the basis of the project Tuning-methodology.In connection with the escalation of the issue of the growth of social and cultural diversity in the program documents, the special significance of education has been emphasized as a factor in preserving national uniqueness and, at the same time, cultural pluralism. The main competencies of the higher education system should be the social and civic skills that involve personal, interpersonal and intercultural skills.The undeniable significance of the ethical component of modern higher education in Ukraine is recognized at the state level. Thus, in the Law of Ukraine «On Higher Education», higher education is represented as a set of systematized knowledge, skills and practical skills, ways of thinking, professional, as well as ideological and civic qualities, moral and ethical values.The «ethics filling» of the university space corresponds to modern trends in the liberalization of higher education and, as well as the increasing autonomy of universities and the culture of higher education quality. Formation of the culture of quality of education involves overcoming the hard direction, encouraging teachers ’ initiatives to increase their qualification and general cultural level. In this context, the ethical foundations of teaching, the teaching of the teachers’ moral principles are a prerequisite for the effectiveness of the quality policy. It is advisable to emphasize the role of the ethical factor in the formation of academic integrity and the necessity of its continuous reproduction, as a means of enhancing the responsibility of teachers for the quality of education.Formation of the personality of a specialist outside of ethics is a cultural and educational utopia, since true knowledge is inseparable from virtue, as good and truth are inalienable. Ethics in the university space is an organic connection of education and upbringing. The axiological potential of education, which is determined by the presence of an ethical component in its system, determines its state and personal value.Reforming the higher education system should continue the process of translating moral values, behavioral models, social guidelines of life. University space must be filled with common values for all members of Ukrainian society. In a new paradigm of the modern system of higher education, ethics, as an academic philosophical discipline, traditionally gravitated towards moralisation and excellence, must become a guide to practical morality, an active regulator of social relations.Reducing the attention to the ethical component of higher education creates a serious spiritual danger, the complexity of which lies in its latency and delayed consequences both for the individual person and for the whole society.Conclusions of the research.An indisputable constant is recognition of the avant-garde role of universities in the information society. Its realities and the transformational state of Ukraine actualize the problem of forming a national elite, not only on the basis of high-level professional knowledge. The University is called to broadcast ethical values-this is an important contribution to the development of the culture of society and the state. The task of the university is not only to provide special knowledge and relevant skills, but also to help young people find their way in a complex and rapidly changing world, in shaping life, moral principles and values. The question of the correlation of general cultural, in particular ethical and narrow professional knowledge, is seen by the authors as particularly relevant, since it can not be ethically neutral university education. The emphasis on the professionalization and specialization of university education (which is absoluted in the information, technogenic society) includes the threat of destruction of the integrity of the individual. The most important social mission of the university, in our opinion, is to provide education as a cultural institution with a high ethical status in society.

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