Educational clusters as a mechanism of interaction of high schools by business-structures

The presented article points out the need for the development of integration forms that unite the potential of educational and production structures, the formation of effective economic relations between enterprises and universities, and the increasing role of the state in staffing innovation activities.

In the conditions of modernization of the economy, in the sphere of educational services there is also a need to identify innovative directions that ensure its continued effective functioning and development. Therefore, educational institutions need to determine the conditions that satisfy consumers of educational services, carry out marketing activities, form a competitive strategy, improve the quality of the educational services provided, which requires the organization of constant monitoring of the external and internal environment. This work can be implemented on the basis of using public-private partnership mechanisms of universities and business structures that are able to provide in a timely and functional way the competitiveness and quality of the educational system. In the context of the struggle for the student, competitive relations are increasingly beginning to cover the entire scope of educational services, accordingly, universities are trying to take a firm place in the educational business.

The country's educational space is actively subjected to modernization processes, transformations affect both the structure and functions of the education system, as well as the content characteristics and technologies of education. The modern education system of the Republic of Tajikistan is a complex organizational structure, its continuous renewal is due to shifts in the social structure of the country and the changing interests of various strata and groups of the population of our society, as well as general trends in the development of modernization processes throughout the world, their global general civilizational scale.

Overcoming the education crisis is a task in the solution of which all stakeholders should be involved at all levels of the education system. We will classify the countries of the world depending on the degree of development of higher education systems using the cluster analysis method for the following indicators:

• 1)    the cost per student in terms of GDP per capita PPP (higher education) US $;

• 2)    the total number of graduates of universities;

• 3)    students of the given country studying abroad (mobile mobile students);

• 4)    indicator of mobile mobility%;

• 5)    mobile mobile students;

• 6)    distribution of graduates by areas of study (% of all areas), science and technology%;

• 7)    number of students per teacher.

As a result of the cluster analysis, four groups of countries were obtained: countries with a developed higher education system, countries with an evolving higher education system, countries with a catching-up education system, and countries with an underdeveloped higher education system (Table 1). Countries included in each of the four groups are characterized by a certain level of development of higher education systems, depending on the values of the selected indicators. The analysis showed that the level of economic development of a country as a whole corresponds to the degree of development of the system of higher education.

Table 1. Classification of countries of the world depending on the degree of development of higher education systems

The first group is determined by the high expenditure per student, high indicators of the total number of graduates of universities and indicators of entry and exit mobility, as well as the excess of the number of students of technical and engineering universities over similar indicators in other groups of countries. The countries included in this group have the most competitive higher education systems, apply new technologies in the organization of the learning process, use innovative teaching methods and produce highly qualified specialists in demand on the labor market, which favors the formation of competitive advantages of the economies of these countries.

The second group includes both developed and developing countries. The work shows that in these countries a fairly high level of mobility, which explains the presence in this group of countries in Africa. The presence in the group of Australia and Japan is explained, on the one hand, by a large number of people and remoteness from Western Europe, and on the other hand, by less effective use of innovations in higher education systems.

The third group of countries with a catching-up education system includes developed, developing and underdeveloped countries whose governments pursue an educational policy in higher education that allows students, on the one hand, to move relatively freely around the world for higher education. On the other hand, the specifics and limitations do not allow full use of new technologies in the higher education system, therefore the degree of development of higher education systems in this group is lower than in groups of countries with developed developing higher education systems.

Countries with an underdeveloped system of higher education are mainly underdeveloped countries and countries with economies in transition, whose higher education systems require serious reform.

The current state of the system of higher education in the country, along with a fairly high level of development of scientific and technical potential, is characterized by a decrease in its competitiveness in the world market. According to the classification of the countries of the world, depending on the degree of development of higher education systems, Tajikistan is in a group of countries with countries with underdeveloped catch-up education system. A comparative analysis of the higher education systems of the countries of the world has shown that such a situation of our country is due to low indicators of the development of higher education systems in relation to countries with a developed and developing higher education system.

Sustainable socio-economic development and the formation of international competitiveness of the country is ensured by the ability to use knowledge as an economic advantage through the exchange of experience, the transfer of technology and information, and academic mobility in the interaction of all economic organizations, including the state. Innovation in the development of higher education systems is a fundamental factor in the country's international competitiveness and can only be ensured through the integrated interaction of all business entities within the organization of an educational cluster as a mechanism for interaction between universities and business structures within the framework of public-private partnership.

In the context of globalization processes, there is a need to improve the system of higher education of the country through the formation of a strategy for innovative development of the system by the main factors in the formation of a competitive strategy of the educational space: the presence in the structure of the country's economy of a complex of macro- and microeconomic changes related to the peculiarities of the national system of higher education; organization of innovative forms of management within the framework of the corporate cluster approach; search for new forms of financial regulation of educational activities, manifested in the development of foreign participation, the formation of trust funds (endowment fund), ensuring the effective use of budget funds, attracting business structures within the framework of public-private partnership.

Increasing the competitiveness of the country's higher education system through the creation of national scientific and educational innovation clusters. Under clusters, the author understands a set of interacting educational, scientific institutions of various levels, united by industry line with the industry's enterprises and having partner relations with them. The innovation of the cluster is the structure of its elements, which includes: educational institutions, research institutes, technology transfer centers, scientific laboratories, technoparks, centers for retraining specialists, enterprises.

The paper proves that the formation of favorable conditions (material, financial, organizational, personnel, pedagogical, social-psychological) for the preparation and retraining of competitive specialists at various levels, the integration of education with science and production, as well as the increase prestige of highly skilled workers' professions.