Understanding the needs of end users (customers, stakeholders) and the simultaneous application of new methodologies for the implementation of strategic plans in order to meet the needs of external (employers) and internal consumers (students and teachers) are essential elements of quality management in higher education. This article aimed to investigate the general state of modern quality management in higher education. A survey of consumers of educational services in Ukraine was conducted in order to study the current state of quality management in higher education. Interested parties’ theory and total quality management methodology in quality management of higher education served as the basis for the research methodology. The requirements of the administration and departments of higher educational institutions, students and employers in Ukraine to the quality of education were studied. Requirements for meeting the needs of consumers of educational services have been developed. During the study, the principle of ‘student‐centred learning’ and the protection of key interests of students were implemented. It was found that the quality of higher education in Ukraine is characterised by a significant level of dissatisfaction. An empirical assessment of the gap between expectations and actual experience of obtaining higher education was carried out and the discrepancy between education in Ukraine and the requirements of stakeholders was proved.
Today there is a downward trend in the credibility of the humanities in university education including philosophy, it is evidenced by the reduction of popularity and the number of teaching hours. Nevertheless, according to students and professors, philosophy is an interesting and necessary discipline for specialists of various knowledge areas. The article is devoted to the study of the basic purpose and features of teaching philosophical disciplines at tertiary educational institutions. Training specialists in various fields in times of urgent need for total revision of the educational paradigm and principles of teaching not only in tertiary education but also throughout the entire system of Ukrainian education as a whole. In the course of the investigation, the methods of interdisciplinary approach, system analysis, social-cultural method, social-activity and concrete-historical approach have been applied. In the framework of the study conducted, the basic functions of philosophical disciplines have been identified that make them an integral part of the educational process at the tertiary educational institution, namely: a) philosophy as a system of world perception formation; b) philosophy as a methodology of scientific research; c) philosophy as the grounding of moral and ethical education; d) philosophy as the basis for critical thinking formation. In the course of investigation it was possible to identify some of the most important general formation principles of the required competences while studying philosophical disciplines, which are further necessary for the comprehensive learning of educational material at a sufficient level. Innovative principles and technologies of modern education help create the relevant matrix of pedagogical design, which makes it possible to better understand the processes and phenomena studied in different disciplines, to comprehend them, to conduct reflection. In the article it was possible to analyze the value of philosophical education for students of tertiary educational institutions of all training areas, to prove the need for such knowledge for the formation of professional, scientific, research, political and social competences of a future adult human, a responsible worker and a concerned citizen.
The formation of new realities of mass culture and consumer society led to a number of crisis phenomena of an ontological and worldview nature. The purpose of the article is to analyze the worldview accents of modernity from the philosophical point of view of mass culture and consumer society, to outline social transformations inherent in social categories of thinking. General scientific methods of analysis of synthesis, deduction, and induction were used to write the article. The results highlighted the main characteristics of mass culture, it was established that it has a specific influence on worldview aspects. Mass production replicated mass things, chimeras of characters, values, etc., which became obsessive in society. Consumer society has turned consumption into the meaning of life. Consumption received leading roles in creating a new type of relations in society, transforming them according to its own development scheme. Consumption has become the dominant socio-cultural aspect in people's consciousness, which has pushed the economic effect into the background. This has led to the formation of a crisis of identities throughout the world, as traditional national ways of demarcation are replaced by social. The conclusions suggest turning to the ideas of the Post-Enlightenment, which contain elements of consumerism.