Ukrainian Youth and Scholars in International Academic Mobility: Resources and Opportunities to Self-Realize

The paper deals with the topic of international academic mobility in Ukraine. It overviews the literature by both national and international researchers on the issue under the investigation and provides a case study of the accomplishments made and pitfalls Ukrainian universities encounter on their integration into the common European educational area. Inconsistent educational legislations between contracting countries, as well as the absence of the uniform legal regulations are stated to be the basic instruments that prevent successful implementing of the programs on academic mobility and factors of major concern that exacerbate the process of students’ or teaching staff’s exchanges, when addressing the topic of academic mobility in Ukraine. A critical study of the analytical data made it possible to spot an array of administrative, managerial, financial, educational proper, and sociocultural roadblocks that hamper Ukrainian transition into the common European educational area. The authors provide statistics on the top rates countries for Ukrainian outcoming academic mobility, and on the top-rated Ukrainian universities for incoming academic mobility. The research reveals outcoming academic mobility to overweigh incoming one in Ukraine owing to the fact the procedures of transferring a Ukrainian student to a university abroad are less complicated than those of a foreign student to Ukrainian higher education establishments. Finally, there are given suggestions on how it might be possible to align educational curricula with the European principles of higher education to foster international academic mobility in Ukraine.


Introduction
The role of international academic mobility cannot be underrated in the context of internationalization of education around the world. The experience of the countries involved in the international academic mobility processes demonstrates improved quality and efficiency of their national higher education, participants' skills and competences, let alone the fact exchange members win better chances to actualize their own and collective potential.
Expanding incoming and outcoming academic mobility is becoming a hot topic for educational establishments in Ukraine, with a view to Ukraine's integration into common European educational space. Participation in the exchange programs is particularly acute for students, teaching staff, and those wishing to acquire new knowledge, to polish skills and professional competences, as well as to tap additional resources and opportunities for self-realize. Active international cooperation in the field of education and science will afford better conditions for Ukrainian students to elect a country, time and a place for education, which will ultimately promote the personality enhancement, and graduates' competitiveness in internal and external labor markets.
For Ukraine, the first step on the way to its integration into the European educational space is the establishment of the nationwide mobility that facilitates both sharing educational experience and gaining high quality cost-effective educational and scholarly degrees. This is a major prerequisite to developing a network of overseas partner universities and joining common European educational space. Another operative tool for Ukraine is modernizing education quality assurance system to guarantee high-quality education, which will lay the procedures and institutional basis for both students and academic teaching staff incoming mobility.

Literature Review
The topic of the student and teaching academic staff mobility has been highlighted in an array of both national and international papers. Leading journals, primarily discuss economic and legal preconditions for implementing academic mobility projects world-wide (Magnan & Back 2007), so long as they make a background for unification of higher education in European or global space, and enhance employability for graduates and postgraduates taught abroad (Bauder 2015;Brooks, Waters, & Pimlott-Wilson 2012;Mohajeri & Gillespie 2009;Van Mol 2017;Waters 2009). On a gross scale, the processes of academic mobility are linked to work migration and are considered their emergence (King & Raghuram 2013;Wilken & Dahlberg 2017). Thus, investigating trends in shifting manpower, attention is also paid to gender factor (Salisbury, Paulsen, & Pascarella 2010) and ethnic groups (Amelina, 2012) that dominate the processes of academic mobility. The issues are directly derived from prescriptive jurisdiction in education is the embodiment of people's basic rights and freedoms, namely, the right to education; so, considerations on educational discrimination and social inequalities that negate access of the underprivileged to high-quality education, not alone participation in the exchange programs, are widely debated (Faist 2016;Lörz Netz, & Quast 2016). Another area with reference to academic mobility that frequents research is cross-cultural differences and difficulties, exchange students come across when in a foreign country (McBurnie & Ziguras 2007).
Their considerations are developed and topped by such scientists as Bilecen and Van Mol (2017), Choudaha (2017), de Oliveira and de Freitas (2016), Jones (2017), Kraler, Reichel, and Entzinger (2015), Riaño, Van Mol, and Raghuram (2018), Wachter (2012), Waters (2009), and others. The abovementioned researchers agree on the fact that the academic mobility process is indispensable to any country, and should be duly formalized in legislation. These scientists also convey the idea that increasing the development of educational establishments and processes requires lifelong learning, constant upgrading of self-potential, and continuous scientific research.
As the case stands, given the flexibility and responsiveness of European educational space to overseas students' requests for submission, Ukrainian students get competitive, equal, and transparent chances to enter academic mobility courses. In such conditions the function of the Ukrainian educational establishments remains twofold: first, to ensure high quality education for the prospective exchange students, and, second, to promote their potential to self-realize in the advanced countries and in the home and international markets, in so far contributing to the acknowledgement of the Ukrainian educational establishments.

Methods
This research paper aims at studying the current state of academic mobility in Ukraine and proposes ways to enhance self-realization for students in the framework of academic mobility opportunities. To achieve the goal, it was necessary to solve the following tasks: 1) to carry out the analysis of analytical sources of the problem under investigation; 2) to discuss the impact of economic factors on academic mobility and establish its basic patterns; 3) to reveal the main trends and specifics of students' academic mobility in Ukraine; 4) to substantiate the conclusions and outline perspective directions for further consideration on the chosen issue.
Achieving the goal required the use of research methods that were consistent with the nature of the phenomenon studied and relevant to the tasks mentioned, namely: -a review of scientific literature on the issue studied; -analyzing economic indicators relative to the increase in academic mobility and graphing statistical data that deal with the phenomenon under consideration; -generalizing findings obtained in the process of diagnosing cause-and-effect relations that account for the academic mobility increase among Ukrainian students.

Results and Discussion
International academic mobility is known to be both a tool of necessity in the current developing education space and a fundamental principle of higher education or vocational establishments. It is intended to promote high quality of education programs and curricula, to build innovative content for the research, and to enhance students and teaching staff competitive rates in global education, science, and labor markets. In terms of global education, its internationalization promotes a person's integration into the international academic community, ensures access to innovative educational findings of advanced countries, increases students' chances to self-realize professionally, and fosters cross-cultural competencies.
Students' international academic mobility affords opportunities to obtain an education in higher educational (vocational) institutions in other countries in the same majors by having their previous course modules, education credits, and terms of study recognized (National Strategy; Resolution). Present-day researchers argue international academic mobility aims at shaping the global educational process, which is meant not only to invite overseas students to curricular courses but also to incorporate other countries into the process of educational governance and administration (Svyrydenko 2014).
Nowadays, the educational integration process is quite dynamic, which provides students, postgraduate and post-doctoral students, lecturers, scholars, and scientific fellows with ample opportunities to participate in diverse educational and research programs. Every country of common European educational space considers this phenomenon an essential constituent in their educational legislations. Student exchange between member states for a period a person obtains specialist training also contributes to integrating country's higher education (vocational) establishments into common international educational space (Tretyak 2015).
Currently, international academic mobility has become common practice in the world and is intended to call students and teaching staff to share and/or exchange experience of obtaining education and earning degrees abroad. It also provides opportunities to acquire additional education by newly made professional and educational standards, to monitor the quality of the education and the rates of the higher educational establishment, to upgrade the content of the educational programs in response to the employers' demand for aligning research with upcoming trends, primarily in crossindustrial and experimental spheres.
Theoretically, by the number criterion, there differentiate between group academic mobility and individual academic mobility. The first one is run within the framework of economic, political or cross-universities partnership; the second one is driven by students' personal needs. Besides, it is also relevant to speak about horizontal and vertical mobilities, with the former to focus on earning first, academic degree, and the latter to underpin gaining further academic degrees (Studny 2019).
Academic mobility makes a prerequisite for the common educational space, which is meant to promote an increase in the international academic activity of both students and teaching staff. This facilitates openness of the education, in which both common European higher education area (EHEA) and European research area (ERA) form modern European knowledge society (the API), in which both present-day European and Ukrainian higher educational establishments are responsible for ensuring their students' high-quality educational services and high qualifications.
Also, current challenges in the global educational space and demands for high-quality education place new tasks for the European community concerning the policies of students' international academic mobility. To foster students' mobility and provide European higher education with a competitive edge an array of measures were taken. Firstly, there were developed qualification degrees in the system of higher education -Bachelor of Sciences and Master of Sciences for graduates, with Ph.D. and Doctoral Degrees for post-graduates. Notably, Ukraine recently adopted a system of national education degrees to European standards. Secondly, there was accepted a uniform Credit Accumulation and Transfer System for students to complete higher education in other countries. Thirdly, there were established rules for international cooperation and criteria for quality assurance in the educational process. Besides, there was introduced European Standard for higher education and elaborated a normative framework to regulate the international mobility of students, teaching staff, scholars, and researchers.
Nowadays, both external and internal labor markets reveal demand for a highly-skilled specialist possessing general and personal competences, which enable them, on the one hand, to do analytical and experimental research, and on the other hand, to prepare them for continuous professional development. This urges an individual to explore new educational needs and interests, to demonstrate high mobility, and to seize new opportunities to self-realize. Consequently, every international mobility member country has to adjust the content of their educational programs to uniform international educational standards to meet the up-dated requirements of specialist training.
European economic vector of Ukraine also assigns new tasks to the professional training of the employees, who will be highly skilled, mobile, and flexible enough to work in dynamic external and internal markets, and will be responsive to increasing requirements for enhanced qualifications.
Among the countries that provide higher education for overseas students, top-rated for the Ukrainians are Poland, Russia, Germany, Canada, the Check Republic, Italy, the USA, Spain, Australia, France, Slovakia, Hungary, Bulgaria, whereas top-priced for the Ukrainians are fees in the UK, Austria, the USA, France, and Italy.
The latest research, which was carried by CEDOS in corporation with the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology (KIIS) and covered Ukraine totally (each oblast, including) as well as 39 countries in the world, shows a sharp increase in the number of Ukrainian students in overseas universities from 2013/2014 to 2017/2018. This value has doubled in the last 5 years, i.e. increased by 42,200 people (Studny 2019) (Data are provided in Table 1).  Table 1 reveals a tendency for the rapid growth of Ukrainian academic mobility values in the last academic years. Even despite the fact of Russia's aggression against Ukraine, the number of students who left the country for higher education in Russia has reached 6,806 people since 2014. This is a result of that the Russian government has increased budget quotes for Ukrainian students during recent years. These students are mostly citizens of Ukrainian temporarily occupied territories (Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts, and Crimea). The reasons that exacerbate the process are acts of military nature in the east, economic and political instability in Ukraine, as well as low-quality education (as claimed by the respondents), limited career and employment prospects in the native country, favorable conditions to acquire and develop new skills abroad. The latter offers prospective students' higher competitiveness, opens up opportunities for travel, and raises living standards.
Concluding the information in Table 1, it is worth mentioning other reasons that reinforce a tendency to students' drift from Ukraine, among which respondents name the acceleration of globalization processes, inflation, and unattractive home labor market. Moreover, European employers prefer immigrant graduates with international diplomas to their native employees as a cheaper but more effective labor force.
On this background, Ukrainian universities are becoming the targets for overseas students, which number by 2018 reached 66,310 people, with the value increasing by 2,310 people in the year of 2018 alone (Studny, 2019). Contrary to this, the net flow of students' international mobility in Ukraine makes a negative value (17,618 students), meaning the preponderance of those leaving the country over those entering the country by a third. In Ukraine, international students are taught in three languages: English, Ukrainian, and Russian. Among the top-rated universities that welcome overseas students are the Kharkiv National Medical University, which trains above 5,500 international students and V. N. Karazin Kharkiv National University with approximately 4,300 overseas students. The list is continued by the Bogomolets National Medical University, Odessa National Medical University, and Zaporizhzhia State Medical University. The highly-rated Ukrainian cities that host international students for higher education are Kharkiv, Kyiv, and Odessa, with up to 20,000 students, 14,000 students, and 7,500 students, respectively in each. The share of the 10 top countries whose citizens are taught in Ukrainian universities makes 16.4% in India, 11.3% in Azerbaijan, 8.8% in Morocco, 6.7% in Turkmenistan, 4.9% in Nigeria, 4.2% in Georgia, 4.1% in Turkey, 3.8% in Egypt, 3.5% in Uzbekistan, 3.2% in Jordan, and 33.1% in other countries (Studny, 2019). As it is seen from the data, India leads the list, finding Ukraine most attractive in international educational markets.
Overall, 5 million people worldwide are reported to leave their countries yearly to obtain higher education abroad. Mostly, overseas students chose primarily the USA, Australia, the UK, Germany, and France. Medical specialties become primary targets for arriving students, with totally up to 45 % of applicants electing medical care, dentistry, and pharmacy. Jurisprudence, management, economics, and civil engineering make the second popular options with foreign students (Karapetian, 2015).
Unfortunately, the maintenance of international academic mobility in Ukraine is quite insufficient; the policies concerning the internationalization of higher educational establishments remain overlooked, and so do legislative and regulatory frameworks in this field. The advantages of exporting and importing educational services elude senior management of most Ukrainian universities, which results both in inadequate administrative control and poor statuary regulation of incoming and outcoming mobility.
Having analyzed the data on the academic mobility of overseas students in Ukraine (Kostiuk, 2016), it has become possible to reveal obvious shortcomings in this area. Firstly, overseas students face difficulties in recognizing their diplomas/ certificates of education or receiving entry visas. Secondly, there are no legislative acts that regulate a procedure of foreign student admission and transfer to each next year of training in reliance on their international diplomas and/ or certificates of prior education. Thirdly, provider sites of educational services, the site of Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine, other educational establishments' sites may post irrelevant or outdated information on the educational establishments accredited in Ukraine or leave out information on the international programs available for exchange students. Fourthly, communication with state bodies is heavily complicated, which aggravates the procedures of receiving registration, residence permits, medical insurance, etc., by or for foreign students. Besides, exchange students are confined to a limited number of higher educational establishments they may elect from, for many universities lack the infrastructure or fail academic accreditation, etc.
Other reasons that block the entry of exchange students to Ukrainian universities are lack of specialized courses that are taught in English on the educational programs or curricula; insufficiency of discrete budgets in educational establishments to foster international academic mobility locally; cumbersome bureaucracy concerning funding, accreditation of education programs, and recognition of academic institutions in the first turn.
The case study of Ukrainian students' academic mobility has also revealed some roadblocks. Among all, there should be highlighted discrepancies in the requirements attributed to the standards of higher education and quality assurance in Ukraine and abroad, the non-concurrence in the procedures of mutual approval and recognition of the imported and exported educational programs or curricula for exchange students, and discord in the procedures of their ratification by the sending and inviting countries' educational legislations, which results in maladjustment of academic exchange programs funding sources to the budgets of the recipient countries (Kostiuk 2016).
Besides, there arise legal complications for Ukrainian students when it comes to transferring their credits to students' credit books on completing an exchange program. Furthermore, unregulated is the mechanism of maintenance students' educational fellowship (studentship) in Ukrainian universities for a period of students' being on academic mobility programs abroad. Another issue to settle for sending and recipient parties is agreeing on academic program calendars and short-term schedules, above all. An additional stumbling block for Ukrainian candidates to participate in the exchange programs is the share of education fees paid by the state or national education institutions to overseas universities for a Ukrainian student, a scholar, or a trainee on the exchange programs, which makes 10%.
The pinpointed complexities might seem to discourage Ukrainian students from applying for grants for academic mobility programs. However, it sounds embarrassing that despite insufficient funding, the number of Ukrainian students, scholars, and teachers in the universities abroad is increasing. Concerning Ukrainian students' education in the overseas universities, it is mostly funded by parents, sponsors, and international charity funds. Actually, Ukrainian reality reveals an imbalance between the level of family income and the level of children's education, and meanwhile, no equilibrium seems reachable between these criteria in the near future. This can be put down to the fact that Ukrainians have always been committed to great cultivation and erudition, therefore, the practicability of knowledge, scientific, cross-cultural, and professional pursuits have been inherent components of self-realization potential in the Ukrainian youth.
Considering existing inconsistencies in academic mobility regulations (both legislative and curricular ones) in different countries, it would be timely to elaborate recommendations for aligning national educational legislations with common European one in the sector of academic students' exchange to optimize both imported and exported academic mobility in Ukraine. Table 2 highlights and summarizes academic mobility problems Ukrainian students', scholars, and teaching staff come across and proposes ways of dealing with them.

Table 2. Ukrainian Students, Scholars, and Teaching Staff in International Academic Mobility: Challenges and Solutions
International Academic Mobility Impracticalities

Proposed Solution
Increased rates of labor migration. Ukraine suffers a loss of scientific labor force enhanced by a drift of gifted youth and rival specialists, primarily.
Creating competitive advantages in the home labor market workplaces, and in the scientific sphere including. Encouragement and promotion of the university sector of higher education and scientific/ research establishments. Shortage of international diplomas in the home market Cultivating a qualifications market based on new competences. Updating exchange programs, enhancing international contacts in educational, scientific and research spheres. Refining a system of information monitoring and receiving feedback from top management in the sector of the academic programs exchange. Educational Programs that are targeted rather at the input than the output. The scope of knowledge received overweighs the quality of skills obtained or students' learning outcomes.
Devising educational programs consistent with the requirements of home and international markets. Utilizing flexible, modular programs.
Complicated path from training a specialist abroad to employing them in Ukraine.
Diversifying areas and methods of specialist's practical training. Updating patterns of specialist's employment in Ukraine. Insufficient level of professional skills acquired, low foreign language communication skills, lack of cross-cultural vocational and academic communication skills.
Opening up opportunities for cross-cultural dialogue, strengthening cooperation between universities and enterprises of the contracting countries, introducing innovative technologies in education and science. A deficient level of quality education and advanced science as required by international standards.
Providing mechanisms of quality control assurance in education and science in compliance with international standards, as well as with the specifications of home and international markets. Development of the international network of accrediting quality education. Absence of effective mechanisms of incorporating Ukrainian employers in the process of prospective specialists training abroad to recognize and consider the differences between Ukrainian and international labor markets.
Designing patterns, how to attract national employers to specialists training abroad via cooperation with international educational recruiting agencies and higher educational establishments.
Informal (un-certified) education is not recognized or employed.
Perfecting legal environment with a view to developing and recognizing informal education A system of on-the-job education in combination with vocational or field training remains ineffective Streamlining a flexible system of on-the-job education Assessing professional competences or qualifications is not institutionalized.
Developing mechanisms of diagnosing a specialist's personal qualities, general and professional competences. Training specialists is done exclusively on the premises of higher educational establishments.
Reforming a system of lifelong learning in universities and extended studies at job places or during employment.

Source: Authors' Analytical Research
Thus, the roots of sluggish international academic mobility of Ukrainian students, scholars, and teaching staff hide behind poor legal basis and regulation mechanisms in national education. Presentday developments reveal domestic reforms overlook the needs of the Ukrainian youth, the living standards in Ukraine (caused by the economic and political situation) and in the European countries, mental characteristics of the cross-cultural social medium, international education quality and fees, cost of accommodation and meals, availability of conveniences, facilities and comforts, etc., when educated abroad.
Aggregately, the pinpointed drawbacks in the policies of academic mobility in Ukraine discourage Ukrainian students, scholars, and teaching staff from getting employed in Ukraine after training abroad. In this case, gaining diplomas or degrees abroad is regarded as an acknowledgment of personal professional proficiency, which opens up enhanced opportunities for employment worldwide as compared to the limited prospects to self-realize professionally in Ukraine. Consequently, emphasizing the significance of being educated abroad, and grasping a fact, it is a vain effort to apply knowledge obtained abroad in Ukraine formalizes students' attitudes to higher education. The solution to the problem is seen in making career and employment prospects for both specialists and young researchers with international diplomas attractive in the home market, and in providing a background for the realization of their personal potential.
Meanwhile, students, teaching staff, and scientists intending to find employment abroad or at big international companies have both higher prospects and stronger motivation reinforced by developed skills and greater potential. On the other hand, applicants for international education may need perfect communication skills in foreign languages, and people's skills to reach a mutual understanding with local communities. Accordingly, mastering present-day international educational programs for Ukrainian students is mandatory, as it lays the foundations for their integration into the cross-cultural community.
Another stepping stone to the mainstreamification of international academic mobility in Ukraine should be university autonomy. This will facilitate adopting advanced international experience and innovative methods and/ or methodologies of training specialists in national higher education establishments, and will meliorate the environment for youth's self-fulfillment, which, in the meantime, establishes top-priority goals for Ukrainian universities on the way to their European integration.
Hence, academic mobility options for Ukrainian students should be envisaged when designing regional modernization projects, for each region of Ukraine has their own demands placed by the priorities in the industrial development of an area. The projects should suggest ways of involving the intellectual potential of the Ukrainian youth into a technologically innovative environment of the region.
Having studied the benefits and drawbacks in the current policies of international academic mobility for Ukrainian students, we come up with proposals on how to bring out youth's self-fulfillment potential. On the first turn, we see it timely to approximate strategies of academic and cultural internationalization in higher education establishments abroad by making them affordable for Ukrainian youth and to regulate national educational, legal standards to secure specialists trained abroad manifold possibilities of their employment in Ukraine by occupation. Secondly, it is essential to coordinate national educational programs with the international qualification prototypes, and to unify qualifications nomenclatures. Thirdly, critical as we suggest is also introducing general rules for a credit-unit system common in the European community or the contracting countries, and establishing unified principles of student's credits transfer in the framework of international academic mobility. Providing mechanisms of cooperation between students' organizations that help exchange students adapt culturally and socially in the educational and cross-cultural environment abroad can also be placed at the front burners. Relatedly, we consider it vital to create a body that would provide teaching, tutor's, mentor's and methodological support to Ukrainian students. Along with that, establishing facilities for exchange program candidates to polish their foreign language communication skills with native speakers and to ease up their social, psychological, and vocational adaptation abroad is of no less importance. Last but not least, it would be desirable to provide Ukrainian exchange students with software and storage media support to enable them to access native e-recourses, to design web-pages, create sites, etc. in the hosting country.

Conclusions
The research carried pinpointed hotspots in the policies of international academic mobility in Ukraine, which tackle both the inflow of the overseas students to Ukraine and the outflow of the Ukrainian students to the overseas countries. The primary reasons that exacerbate both importing and exporting academic mobility in Ukraine are discrepancies in the educational legislation of the contracting countries, which give rise to difficulties for both Ukrainian and overseas students to have their credits transferred and diplomas recognized by the hosting universities.
The research reveals outcoming academic mobility to overweigh incoming one in Ukraine owing to the fact the procedures of transferring a Ukrainian student to a university abroad are less complicated than those of a foreign student to Ukrainian higher education establishments. This tendency hinders the arrival of foreign students in Ukraine and hampers importing international academic mobility in the country.
Another major concern in the sector of exporting international academic mobility in Ukraine is seen in the fact that gifted Ukrainian youth educated abroad do not return to Ukraine to realize the professional competences they obtained. Nowadays, it is cutting-edge to enhance patriotic values with Ukrainian youth, so as to encourage them to return to Ukraine and apply the knowledge and skills obtained abroad to the advancement of the national economy.
The analytical review demonstrates the top five countries that dominate Ukrainian's demand for overseas education are Poland, Russia, Germany, Canada, and the Check Republic. Meanwhile, overseas students choose Kharkiv, Kyiv, Zaporizhzhia, and Odessa for their education in Ukraine, electing preferably medical care, dentistry, and pharmacy, jurisprudence, management, economics, and civil engineering for admission. The top five overseas countries that favor education in Ukraine are India, Azerbaijan, Morocco, Turkmenistan, and Nigeria. Academic mobility sectors in Ukrainian educational institutions and establishments should become pivotal for the state's home policies.
Authorities and university top managers should make efforts for Ukrainian educational establishments to become equal and honorable members among the educational establishments of the European Union countries.
Moving forward, we see it topical to work out strategies for fostering international education in Ukraine, and designing mechanisms of employment Ukrainian citizens educated abroad, for free movement, distinguished careers, and excellent employment are key concepts of the international academic mobility processes.