The paper is aimed at investigating adaptation peculiarities of the first-year students to university life. Among 105 first-year students selected for taking part in research 57 were internal migrants who had to change their place of residence and move to a student residential complex and 48 were original city residents who continued living at home. The research took place in 2018/2019 academic year at two Ukrainian universities. To promote research and collect data several diagnostic tools were used. To understand the leading concepts of research the methods of scientific literature analysis were applied. To process and interpret the obtained results the authors used the methods of mathematical statistics. The obtained results showed that stress resistance was the main source of successful adaptation of the first-year students to university life. Being self-resistant studentsinternal migrants seemed to know better how to deal with problems concerning their study and to be more open to interactions with their peers, family members and university teachers. At the same time facing unusual problems studentsoriginal city residents were not able to cope with them in a proper way and were more vulnerable to different stressors concerning university and personal life. The conducted research made it possible to define the difference between stress resistance of students-internal migrants and students-original city residents and to prove the correlation between adaptation and stress level.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to identify the features of higher education management in the context of global economic transformations. Design/methodology/approach A correlation-regression analysis of the functionality of the modern education system was carried out in the “personality-society-economy” triad by analyzing the impact of global indices such as Economic Quality Index, Personal Freedom Index and Social Capital Index on the resultant indicator, or the Education Index. Findings It was determined that the impact of economic factors on the level of education is rather low, and at the same time, this indicator largely depends on the indicator of the social capital. In this regard, the following social trends have been identified that need to be implemented for the successful education management: expanding the population education program, as well as providing lifelong education, ensuring equal access to quality education, strengthening the role of the state in ensuring equity in education, efficient and effective use of education costs, humanization and democratization of education, updating the content, forms, methods and means of training, enhancing the professional competence of teachers, transparency of education systems, the formation of state-public forms of education management. Originality/value In the framework of the proposed research, it was established the hypothesis that the modern education system is dependent on the relation between individual, society and the national economy.

The present paper addresses the issue of determining the best international practices for developing soft skills among students of different specialties through carrying out a theoretical review. Basing on literature on present-day theory the authors make an attempt to explain soft skills dichotomies, summarize existing approaches to classifying soft skills, consolidate and document best international practices for soft skills development among potential employees of different specialties including bachelor students, master students, doctoral and postdoctoral students. The data obtained in the theoretical analysis reveal that the possible ambiguities in the interpretation of the concept of “soft skills” are caused, on the one hand, by the dichotomic perception of their nature by present-day researchers and educators and, on the other hand, by the absence of the common language which makes it difficult to provide a more unified definition most satisfactory to all concerned. The authors are convinced that soft skills have a cross-cutting nature and regard them as personal and interpersonal meta-qualities and meta-abilities that are vital to any potential employee who is going to make positive contributions not only to his/her professional development but to the development of a company he/she is going to work for. The results of the conducted theoretical review clearly indicate that the absence of the unified understanding of the concept of “soft skills” is reflected in the existence of different approaches to classifying soft skills, let alone, the selection of didactic tools for developing soft skills among potential employees.

The paper was aimed at examining higher school teachers’ strategies for self-assessing and improving digital competence and finding out the range of the most effective and innovative ones. The research sample consisted of 115 higher school teachers from four higher educational establishments in Ukraine. The research sample was selected with the use of a non-random sampling technique. Personal data of research sample were taken into consideration i.e. demography, gender balance, age and specialty. The research strategy for collecting empirical data combined a web-based questionnaire, individual interviews, conversations with respondents and analysis of reflexive texts. The collected empirical data were then analyzed both quantitatively and qualitatively. The data were processed by means of Microsoft Excel 2016 and verified by Chronbach’ Alfa (An Index of Reliability). During the development of a web-based questionnaire the authors defined seven cognitive content-components of higher school teachers’ digital competence and each of them was given a synthetic index. The obtained findings showed that higher school teachers had different levels of digital competence: ranging from low to high, and revealed the diversity in peculiarities of its manifestations and ways of thinking when operating the competence mentioned. The research results served as the basis for offering innovative strategies for self-assessing and improving higher school teachers’ digital competence.

Recent studies focus on a new model of global process management formation and transformation. The purpose of this article is to reveal and analyze the level of economic security in Ukraine, argue the interdependence of socio‐economic development and economic security, and suggest possible ways to improve the state of things. The analysis is carried out on the basis of reliable statistical data and through the prism of the following global indices: Human Development Index, Social Progress Index, World Happiness Report, Global Innovation Index, Index of Economic Freedom, Corruption Perceptions Index. This article considers the impact of international indices of social‐economic status on economic security (the case study concerns the period of 2010–2018). The multifactor correlation‐regression analysis allows the assessment of the degree of social‐economic status indices' influence on the output results. The key findings of the study provide recommendations, the implementation of which will help Ukraine to strengthen its positions. Related Articles Bochsler, Daniel. 2009. “Are Mixed Electoral Systems the Best Choice for Central and Eastern Europe or the Reason for Defective Party Systems?” Politics & Policy 37(4): 735–67. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1747-1346.2009.00196.x. Kilinç‐Pala, and Pinar Buket. 2021. “Approaches in Energy Exclusive Security: Theories of Energy Security and the Dominance of Realism.” Politics & Policy 49(3): 771–94. https://doi.org/10.1111/polp.12411. Kostadinova, Tatiana. 2009. “Abstain or Rebel: Corruption Perceptions and Voting in East European Elections.” Politics & Policy 37(4): 691–714. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1747-1346.2009.00194.x.