Financial Provision of Institutions of Professional Pre-Higher Education: The Essence, Normative, Organizational and Accounting Aspects

Abstract

The article is aimed at studying the main features of institutions of professional pre-higher education (colleges) as structural subdivisions of higher educational institutions and the peculiarities of their financial provision, as well as developing proposals for its optimization and accounting display, including in the direction of development of sources that are viewed as a structural subsystem of the financial mechanism. As a result of the study, the need to optimize the financing of education and its further development is proved. On the example of institutions of professional pre-higher education, the problem of reducing the number of applicants for education and educational institutions is identified, which negatively affects the level of supplying the Ukrainian labor market with specialists. The connection of the level of financing with the State policy on the development of education in Ukraine and the use of a new budget mechanism in this area, which stipulates the transfer of a number of pre-higher educational institutions to financial provision from local budgets, is determined. A significant impact on the functioning of pre-higher education on the part of the adopted Law of Ukraine «On Pre-Higher Education» is identified, which, among other things, defines the possibility of not only budgetary support, but also funding at the expense of other sources that are not prohibited by law, with the obligatory observance of the principles of targeted and effective use of funds, publicity and transparency in decision-making. The authors examine the problems that have occurred in the system of professional pre-higher education and it is concluded about absence of a comprehensive, scientifically based program of financial provision for the activities of educational institutions, which would create a financial basis for the strategic development of pre-higher education in Ukraine in the context of globalization and informatization of society. In its development, it is proposed to take into account all possible sources of financing, as well as to improve the accounting system in the direction of separate display of its revenues in the context of relevant sources and to form a working plan of accounts accordingly. The expediency of applying such a form of financing of social projects and target programs of educational institutions as fundraising, which represents a specially organized process of gathering monetary means for the implementation of projects of non-profit organizations, is substantiated. Financial provision of colleges based on fundraising can be carried out using instruments such as grants or payment for services on a contractual basis. Innovations in financing affect their accounting, and this issue is currently under-researched. Therefore, research on the issues of improving both the synthetic and the analytical accounting of financial provision from various sources, as well as the development of a system of documentary support of fundraising relations between counterparties, are perspective.