ASSESSMENT OF THE IMPACT OF THE HEI PERFORMANCE ON THE STATE FUNDING OF SPECIALIST TRAINING: REGIONAL DIMENSION

The article carries out a comprehensive study of the relationship between the performance of higher education institutions (HEIs) and the amount of state funding for training of specialists in the regional context in the context of the functioning in Ukraine of the formula mechanism for allocating budget funds among HEIs. The main attention is focused on assessing the effectiveness of the current funding formula, in particular, on identifying correlations between changes in the integrated performance indicator (excluding the regional component) and the growth rate of funding in the period 2022–2024. The author proposes a conceptually grounded approach to the exclusion of an endogenously uncontrollable indicator of regional support from the formula, which allows for a more objective comparison of the efficiency of the functioning of higher education institutions in the interregional aspect. The analysis of the data showed an increase in the average level of adjusted performance of higher education institutions in the vast majority of regions, which indicates a progressive dynamics of the development of educational potential. At the same time, the results of the correlation analysis revealed a very weak and even inverse relationship between the improvement of performance and the growth of funding, which contradicts the basic logic of the formula approach. There were cases when regions with deteriorating performance received increased funding, and vice versa – high achievements of higher education institutions in some regions were not accompanied by adequate resource provision. This leads to the conclusion that the current formula needs to be adjusted, the weighting factors clarified, the role of exogenous factors reduced, and the dependence of funding on the results achieved increased. The findings are important for the formation of a new strategy for budget financing of higher education, taking into account regional performance and the need for institutional improvement.