The purpose of the study is to investigate how visiting lectureship is capable to reshape and improve the university curriculum for four different majors such as educational policy, instruction, healthcare, and technology. The research is significant because it addresses some current challenges forming a crisis of higher education such as an instructional challenge, a fiscal challenge, a birth rate-related challenge, and a graduate employment challenge. This study combines exploratory and quasi-experimental research methods, and Baseline Study Survey Questionnaires (BSSQ), Questionnaire to Measure Research Skills (QMRS), The students’ research activeness checklist, Professional Self-development Critical Reflection Scale (PSCRS), along with Self-directed Learning Skills Scale (SLSS) are the research instruments used in this study. The sample used are 184 (169 students and 15 lecturers), and key data are drawn from the assessment of students’ research skills and activeness, professional self-development, self-directed learning and self-education skills, and professional socialisation by students themselves and their teachers before and after the intervention. The stakeholders’ perceptions of visiting lectureship such as students, lecturers, and representatives of the host organisations are studied using the focus group interviews. It is found that visiting lectureship reshapes and improves the university curriculum of four different majors namely: educational policy, instruction, healthcare, and technology. Add to this, visiting lectureship positively influences students’ research activeness, professional self-development, self-directed learning & self-education skills, and professional socialisation, and it is positively perceived by students, lecturers, and representatives of the host organisations. Visiting lectureship also increases lecturers’ motivation to provide a higher quality of instruction. Besides, it benefits the potential employers as these are involved in the educational process at the early stage of the programme in its design and updating, which will result in a more competent and competitive staff for them to hire.

The article presents the results obtained from a comparative analysis of the introduction of dual education in Germany and Ukraine. The European tendency towards transforming dual learning from vocational education to higher education is described. It is found that the conceptual basis for the introduction of dual learning is the cooperation between employers, educational institutions and students (employees), who are actively involved in learning, work and development of learning programmes for future specialists. The article discloses certain approaches to dual learning in Germany: combining learning in educational institutions with on-the-job learning, a focus on vocational training, being involved in the development of educational vocational programmes for social partners and the coordination of these programmes with all stakeholders. It also analyzes the main models of dual learning in German higher education institutions: learning- and practice-integrated studies. The learning-integrated model of dual learning includes the following characteristics: theoretical learning in a higher education institution is combined with simultaneous practical learning at an enterprise; such learning should result in obtaining a bachelor’s degree, as well as a document upon the acquisition of practical skills in a particular profession, issued by the Chambers of Commerce and Industry of Germany. The practice-integrated model of dual learning is characterized as follows: theoretical learning in higher education institution, which is combined with different options for practical activities at the enterprise (practical learning, internships, part-time job or part-time learning). The article also considers the programmes of dual learning in certain German institutions offering dual learning and characterizes the peculiarities of their content. It also presents the results of a comparative analysis on bachelor programmes in the field of motor transport of related specialties in Ukraine and Germany, describes the conditions of dual education in Ukraine and outlines the prospects for its further development.

The paper highlights the results of empirical research regarding the issues undermining the implementation of inclusive education in the context of training handicraft teachers and, consequently, discovers effective ways to eliminate them. It shows that future handicraft teachers are mostly not ready to implement inclusive education. This is due to the lack of adequate knowledge and skills required to work with children with special needs. Besides, the paper indicates students’ unawareness of categories of children with special needs and characteristics of correctional and developmental work in handicraft lessons, including relevant exercises, motor activity. This fact negatively affects future teachers’ emotional readiness to work under such conditions. Working with various tools while processing structural materials requires adherence to safety rules in lessons and appropriate organization of design and technological activities. The paper specifies that teacher placement supervisors do not have the necessary experience of working with children with special needs and thus cannot prepare their students for that. Also, it justifies the need to develop students’ emotional readiness to work with children with special needs, update the content of professional training for future handicraft teachers, taking into account the specifics of inclusive education, develop their ability to employ teaching methods appropriate for inclusive classes in handicraft lessons. Finally, the paper isolates the main areas that can help to increase the effectiveness of professional training of future handicraft teachers in higher education institutions so that they can work with children with special needs.

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<p style="text-align: justify;">The purpose of the study is to explore the ways of involving university stakeholders specifically in updating educational services. It combined exploratory and observational research methods which relied on qualitative or quantitative data gathered through the researcher-designed and validated tools which were the empirical and methodological contributions to the previous research. The five most frequent choices that might encourage the stakeholders to donate or invest in an educational institution were as follows: a portfolio of the use of donations, investments, or grants, having a stake in the educational services of more than 7%, having access to budgeting and cost reporting, having a share in the institutions’ profit and being one of the decision-makers. The factors that discouraged investors from investing in education were as follows: distrust of the activity of the educational institutions in terms of addressing the stakeholders’ needs or interests, lack of engagement or cooperation, institutional and government-imposed barriers between them and the institutions, uncertainty concerning the efficiency of the institutions and inefficient use of the resources by the institutions. The initiative was complimentarily perceived by stakeholders in terms of collaboration and investment opportunities. It was also found beneficial by the sampled students.</p>