Regional Analysis of the Participation of Ukrainian Higher Education Institutions in Scientific Project Competitions in 2023: Efficiency and Influence Factors

Abstract

The organization of innovative activities is becoming more and more relevant for the Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) of Ukraine – obtaining grants for research and works, participation in lots, training highly qualified scientists on this basis. This is especially important in the context of the development of the regions of our country, where university scientific activity is one of the significant factors in the innovative development of territories. Therefore, the purpose of our research is to conduct a regional analysis of the participation of higher education institutions of Ukraine in scientific project competitions in 2023 to determine the effectiveness and factors influencing such activity.

For the purpose of the study, the official results of rating the effectiveness of higher education institutions of Ukraine in the main competitions of scientific projects (international and domestic), which were conducted based on the results of the universities’ activities in 2023, were analyzed. As a result of the correlation analysis, a relationship between the quantitative indicators of the rating of higher education institutions and such factors as the h-index of the institution in the Scopus database, the number of articles in the Scopus database during 2019–2023, the staff of teachers in 2023, the experience of participating in Erasmus+ projects was revealed KA2, number of Erasmus+ KA2 projects in the 2014–2020 cycle, total funding under Erasmus+ KA2 projects in the 2014-2020 cycle, number of foreign higher education institutions partners under Erasmus+ KA2 projects in the 2014–2020 cycle. Further construction of a multivariate regression model made it possible to reveal a significant influence on the position of higher education institutions in the overall ranking of the following factors: the number of articles in the Scopus database for 2019–2023, the number of Erasmus+ KA2 projects in the 2014–2020 cycle, the number of teachers.

The analysis of the differences between private and public higher education institutions in the context of their participation in scientific project competitions in 2023 was carried out using the non-parametric Kruskall – Wallis test and revealed that such differences for private and public higher education institutions are statistically absent.

We evaluated the effectiveness of regional higher education institutions’ participation in scientific project competitions in 2023 based on quantitative and qualitative parameters. Quantitative analysis showed the absence of a significant correlation between the number of HEIs in the region, in which projects are implemented, and the average position of HEIs in the region in the overall rating. Qualitative analysis made it possible to identify the leading regions of the organization of project activities in Ukraine – HEIs of Ternopil region, as well as HEIs of Lviv, Odesa, Kharkiv, Poltava and Sumy regions.

We consider it expedient to return to the topic of the study after accumulating data for the analysis of at least a 5-year time series to identify trends in the participation of higher education institutions of Ukraine in scientific project competitions.