It is considered that the quality and competitiveness of university alumni depends on material, technical, scientific and methodical background of the university. It takes a long time for a university to get the status of competitiveness. If this happens, the university can use this status as a kind of guarantee and attraction for future applicants for quite a long time.

There are certain factors that advance the university and help it to become and remain competitive:

-        openness to international experience;

-        investments from a wide range of sources (public, private and charitable);

-        obtaining of international accreditation of educational programs;

-        widen the range of joint programs;

-        pursuit of long-term results;

-        hiring, promoting and rewarding of highly trained professionals;

-        purposefulness of each university employee to act in accordance with the goals of the university management;

-        quality of educational training and upgrade of program contents;

-        extensive, comprehensive learning environment;

-        interaction with international student recruiting agencies;

-        increase the role of research and project work in the learning process;

-        support student mobility and exchange;

-        presence of abundant of equipment and resources;

-        flexible management administration;

-        proximity of the university to the future employers of its alumni [1, 2, 6, 7].

In the global educational market, the status of a competitive university has a number of benefits as the university:

-        attracts international and local business;

-        provides world-leading teaching and research;

-        develops faculty and scholar mobility;

-        has resources to invest in academic research;

-        attracts the very best students from home and overseas;

-        provides improved infrastructure for learning and teaching;

-        provides student support services (grants, etc) [4, 5, 8].

The status of a competitive university implies being in one of the global university ranking. The world’s largest university rankings are:

-        Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU), also referred to as “Shanghai Ranking”;

-        QS World University Rankings;

-        Times Higher Education World University Rankings.

Government and business support the universities included in the list of top 500 that turns the university into a powerful innovative centre, gives possibilities to:

-        increase the number of foreign teachers;

-        expand the range of educational programs;

-        attract talented students;

-        support research;

-        improve university campus [3].

Thus, university competitiveness boosts the local economies, furthers the attraction of brightest minds from around the world and the best students with the highest exam scores, makes a key contribution to the cultural, intellectual and economic growth of the country.

References:

1.       Куимова М. В. К проблеме формирования профессиональной мобильности студентов технического вуза // В мире научных открытий. 2013. № 11.8 (47). С. 348–351.

2.       Пальчевская Е. С., Куимова М. В. Academic exchange programs as a step to the globalization of education // Молодой ученый. 2015. № 5 (85). С. 516–518.

3.       Avralev N. V., Efimova I. N. University rankings as a tool to enhance competitiveness, clustering and transnational governance of higher education in the context of globalization // Middle-East Journal of Scientific Research, 2013. № 16 (3). Pp. 357–361.

4.       Enterprise development and global competitiveness through the development of higher education. http://www.researchgate.net/profile/Pekka_Kess/publication/264822314_Enterprise_development_and_global_competitiveness_through_the_development_of_higher_education/links/54ea11ed0cf27a6de1135014.pdf (accessed May 22, 2015).

5.       Innovation, universities, and the competitiveness of the region http://www.tekes.fi/globalassets/julkaisut/universities.pdf (accessed May 22, 2015).

6.       Kuimova M. V. The Importance of independent students works in the process of getting higher education in technical university // Международный журнал прикладных и фундаментальных исследований. 2010. № 4. С. 56–58.

7.       ROADMAP for Implementing the Global Competitiveness Programme of the National Research University “Higher School of Economics” in 2013–2020. http://strategy.hse.ru/en/summary (accessed May 22, 2015).

8.       Staying on top: The challenge of sustaining world-class higher education in the UK. http://www.russellgroup.ac.uk/uploads/Staying-on-Top-The-challenge-of-sustaining-world-class-higher-education-in-the-UK.pdf (accessed May 22, 2015).