SCIENTIFIC-THEORETICAL SUBSTANTIATION OF THE METHODOLOGICAL CONCEPT OF BUILDING A QUALITY SYSTEM OF HIGHER PHARMACEUTICAL EDUCATION

Abstract

Introduction.The joining of Ukraine to the world research and academic community, significant reforms in the national education system and its integration into the European space have also affected higher pharmaceutical education in the context of rethinking and restructuring the management and quality assurance of the educational process. The quality of education is the necessary prerequisite for formation and development of professionals in the pharmaceutical sector, their ability to be competitive in the labor market, develop and work under new conditions.

One of the promising directions of solving problems of the quality of pharmaceutical education is formation and proper functioning of the quality system of higher pharmaceutical education (GSHPE) in higher education institutions (HEI). It will promote a high level of training of specialists of new generation who can respond quickly to the current changes and challenges. GSHPE will improve the rating of pharmaceutical and medical HEI that train professionals for the pharmaceutical industry in the world scientific and education space.

The analysis conducted has allowed making the conclusion that despite a great number of publications concerning the issues of the quality of pharmaceutical education at present the problem of substantiation of scientific principles and common methodological approaches to provide the proper formation and functioning of a complete GSHPE remains relevant.

This, in turn, requires elaboration of modern scientific approaches, which are tools of quality management in higher education, including pharmaceutical education, and can be considered as the methodological basis of this system.

The aim of the article is to substantiate the methodology for formation of GSHPE as a set of interrelated scientific principles that allow achieving its objectives and providing its effective functioning.

Results and Discussion. The studies of the problem of quality assurance in higher pharmaceutical education allow to assert that design (modeling or formation) of GSHPE should be based on the study and consideration of domestic and foreign experience, the theoretical substantiation of the methodological concept, generalization and determination of the scientific approaches required for formation and the effective functioning of GSHPE.

Today a significant number of different methodological approaches that form the basis of the educational process are known in the system of higher education. Among the traditional methodological approaches the following approaches should be mentioned: system, activity-based, comprehensive, student-centered, personalized activity-based, etc., and among new scientific approaches that only begin to be actively used in the national system of higher education – contextual, personalized, ergonomic, etc.

As the result of the scientific search the generalized analysis of definite scientific approaches has been carried out. It has allowed revealing the grounds of their systematization and combination in the following groups:

− functional approaches, which are aimed at providing the quality of educational activities at the general level of HEI management and determining its individual functions (effective, activity-based, socio-cultural, regulatory-oriented, resource, institutional, praxiological, functional);

− cognitive approaches that focus on the assessment of competencies of learners and active involvement of participants of the educational process in it, consider the individual and personal qualities of students and the requirements of consumers of education services (competency-based, student-centered, criterion-oriented, environmental, job analysis, participative-interactive, hermeneutical, motivational);

− forming approaches, which are aimed at providing the quality of education activities for implementation of the competence approach (context, reputation, personalized, facilitating, information, reflective, innovative, technological, integrative);

– approaches that are determined by the methodology of the total quality management, international standards and models of quality of education (synergistic, determination, integrated, system, process, situational, axiological).

According to the results of the expert evaluation of applying various scientific approaches to provide the quality of higher pharmaceutical (medical) education for further study of feasibility of their use in forming GSHPE, as well as taking into account diversity and comprehensiveness of the scientific approaches under research, we consider to be expedient to form a unified methodological concept of GSHPE.

The methodological concept determines the general strategy of interaction between the research approaches used, objectives, methods, tools, impact factors for formation and functioning of GSHPE and achieving its aim.

Conclusions. In the context of the research conducted it can be stated that the methodological concept proposed for formation and functioning of GSHPE is a set of interrelated scientific approaches grouped into the following main groups: functional, cognitive, aspectual approaches, and approaches based on the methodology of the total quality management and capable of providing the unity, integrity and interaction of all structural components of GSHPE.

This research does not settle all aspects of the problem. The issues of documentary, methodological and information support of GSHPE and the quality monitoring system of higher pharmaceutical education should be included to the promising directions for further study.