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The purpose of this paper is to propose and empirically substantiate modification of SERVPERF instrument. We demonstrate difference in practical realization of SERVQUAL (Perceptions-Minus-Expectations) and modified SERVPERF (Performance-Minus-Expectation) based on qualitative and two quantitative methodological studies carried out at the Faculty of Sociology of Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv. We used questionnaire adaptation for higher educational institutes (HEI).The sample size of the quantitative studies (10 persons of 2nd year of education, 10 persons of 3nd year of education, 10 persons of 4th year of Bachelor degree program and 5 persons of 2nd year of Master degree program; every 4th student of each year of education) complies with the used statistical test and the sample size requirements for focus groups. To compare the instruments we used nonparametric Wilcoxon signed rank test imple­men­ted in the statistical programming package R. Our finding is that modified SERVPERF is more convenient for students, smaller and more useful for online surveys. So, the difference in mean values of answer’s levels is mo­re significant between modified SERVPERF and normalized SERVQUAL than between modified SERVPERF and perceptions in SERVQUAL. Although the research has limitation – it is reconnaissance one and made as a one of steps for adaptation and validation of models for service quality measuring in Ukrainian HEI based on survey of Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv students, however, the results of this methodological study allow other researchers to conduct representative studies using an adapted questionnaire of SERVQUAL at their universities. This result is important for service quality estimation which is needed for universities to monitor and improve the quality of their services and elaborate marketing strategy now.

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The paper aims to acquaint Ukrainian sociologists with the research findings regarding modernisation processes and changes in value systems, which were happening in post-socialist countries of Eastern Europe during profound societal transformations of the 1990s and the first half of the 2000s. The analysis demonstrates that modernisation is a permanent, relative, non-linear and antinomic process. Antinomies of modernity are linked to the emancipation process and the corresponding change in value orientations in society. Emancipation, which is unfolding against a backdrop of improving the quality of life, is accompanied by the rise of personal responsibility for choices being made, as well as by threats to individual freedom. This brings into sharp focus the inclusiveness of modernisation. On the other hand, unfavourable socio-economic environment along with declining sense of existential security may lead to de-modernisation, which is coupled with shrinking tolerance and dwindling willingness to accept others, receding trust in democratic institutions, disruptions to rational communication in society, weaker support for emancipative values and adherence to materialistic ones. The estimate of effects related to a certain historical period and generational turnover through intra- and inter-cohort components of social change, which was made using statistical modelling, has shown that socialisation is a key factor explaining continuity of the modernisation trend — since there are cohort differences in value orientations formed during a gradual improvement of the quality of life in the preceding period. In 13 post-socialist countries, there is a tendency for emancipative values to spread due to socialisation; however, in a few of them a statistically significant inter-cohort component is combined with adverse contextual factors. Thus, even though European integration has proved to be quite an effective strategy for modernisation in most post-socialist Eastern European countries, it is not an irreversible process. Such a perspective helps to better understand the contradictory nature of transformations taking place in Eastern Europe, particularly in Ukrainian society.

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