Regulatory aspects of implementation of joint education programs

The purpose of a review article is the systematization and analysis of the existing legal framework of joint educational programs at both local and state level, identifying the stages of their development and implementation that require additional regulation. Despite the experience of the Russian universities, the key risks of development and implementation of joint educational programs are still the following - incomplete regulatory base and significant differences in its interpretation. The article clarifies the nature and classification of joint educational programs, as one of the types of network educational programs. Authors propose key features of joint educational programs: poly-subject nature, unified curriculum, synchronicity, complementarity, legal basis and parity. The article presents the results of the analysis of the regulatory framework for the development and implementation of joint educational programs in Russian universities on the basis of a comparison with the European experience, in which they are an instrument of formation and development of the European higher education area. Systematization of the stages of development and implementation of joint educational programs and normative documents of the local and state levels helped to identify that the following processes are still not regulated: the formation of the consortium of joint educational programs partners, program management and quality assurance. Taking into account the peculiarities of the Russian system of higher education additional regulation is required concerning admission of students to joint educational programs, funding rules and state accreditation requirements and procedures. However, universities are granted considerable academic freedom in the development and implementation of joint educational programs, ensuring their quality conforms to the European approach to the regulation of higher education and it requires a certain maturity of local normative systems of the universities. The findings can be used by higher educational institutions in the field of improvement of local normative systems for joint educational programs. At the state level, improvement of the legal regulation of such programs has important conceptual value, as they are an example of the transition from the concept of «value chain» to «value network» when a partnership of competitors in the market is no longer a resource but a mechanism for providing services and manufacturing products. Therefore, the development of regulations of joint educational programs is a necessary step for the development of new types of educational products and technology in the higher education of Russia.