METHODOLOGICAL POTENTIAL OF THE STAKEHOLDER APPROACH IN RESEARCH OF THE HIGHER EDUCATION MARKET
The relevance of the research is related to the fact that higher education is considered as one of the leading factors for increasing the competitiveness of the country, accordingly it is necessary to understand the patterns and tendencies of its development for the formation of regulatory mechanisms and determining the prospects for development. The purpose of the study is to review existing studies on the application of the stakeholder approach to the analysis of the higher education market. This article focuses on the macro level - on the study of the Russian market of higher education as a whole, leaving behind the analysis of meso- and microlevels (the regional market and individual educational institutions). A retrospective view on the formation of the stakeholder theory and its application to the analysis of the higher education market is given. The authors’ view on the composition and qualitative characteristics of stakeholders in the higher education market is suggested. The consideration of public institutions and employers as the main stakeholders justifies the creation of monitoring and public control tools, as well as the participation of business in the implementation of educational programs, which provides the possibility of external control over the quality of higher education. The higher education market is viewed as a network of neoclassical and relational contracts, which gives a deeper understanding of the mechanisms of interaction with state and public institutions.
Keywords: higher education market, stakeholder, methodology of stakeholder approach, externalities, contract network.
Highlights:
the stakeholder approach considers the higher education market as a network of stakeholder contracts, which in turn makes it possible to assess the density of formal and informal stakeholder relationships, identify institutional voids, and determine the place and role of the higher education system relative to other participants in the education market;
the interpretation of the higher education market as a network of stakeholder contracts allows justifying the need for monitoring, public accreditation and the same activities on the part of all stakeholders, including public institutions and employers;
the stakeholder approach allows more efficiently developing coordinating mechanisms for satisfying the interests of all participants in the higher education market, reducing the possibility of their rent-seeking behavior.
Natalia Yu. Vlasova, Doctor of Economics, Professor; Elena L. Molokova, Associate Professor; Dmitry A. Karkh, Doctor of Economics, Professor - Ural State University of Economics, Yekaterinburg.