The COVID-19 pandemic has brought significant changes in education worldwide throughout 2020. In Ukraine, the preparedness for this process was different. There were various technical problems such as the absence of Internet connection, computers, or educational materials on the network, and most importantly, the unpreparedness of teachers to perform distance learning. From 28 April to 8 May 2020 at the Oles Honchar Dnipro National University (Dnipro, Ukraine), students were surveyed on the quality of distance learning organized during the quarantine period. A total of 1224 students from almost all faculties and centers took part in the survey and answered 19 questions in an online form developed in Office 365 (Microsoft Corporation, Redmond, WA, USA). The survey algorithm is based on the principle of cross-validation. According to the survey, the most important opportunities of distance (digital) learning are as follows: the opportunity to study in a convenient place, in a comfortable and familiar environment—28.57%; the opportunity to combine work with study—16.97%; the development of self-control skills and motivation to self-educate—16.43%; and the technical level of the learning process (use of information technologies)—13.83%. The aspects that negatively affect the organization of full-scale distance learning are as follows: the large volume of tasks—16.80%; the rapid fatigue due to prolonged work in front of a computer—16.35%; the absence of necessary equipment and/or constant (stable) access to the Internet—15.33%. In conclusion, ways to overcome the difficulties of distance learning, both by universities and by the government, are suggested.

In their paper, the authors studied sequence of development and importance of leadership, military management as the basis of effective management of the military organization. The emphasis was placed on the managerial qualities of a modern military commander as a leader of a military organization. Leading talent for military commanders was announced on the example of Sun Tsu and Alexander Suvorov. It is stated that charismatic leadership as a special type of leadership is based neither merely on the law and the constitution as in legitimate leadership, nor on tradition as in traditional leadership, but solely on the special talent of a charismatic leader capable of enchanting and leading a mass of people. The authors suggested three groups of elements of the leader's image in relation to the political leader are outlined, namely, personal characteristics – physical, psycho-physiological features, his character, type of personality, individual style of decision making; social characteristics – the status of a leader associated with the official position, as well as related to the origin, wealth, etc. in the paper it is singled out the main psychological and pedagogical properties of the military commander and his functions in modern military management.

The article enlightens the activities of the main public online educational platforms in Ukraine, their role in the modernization of education and their socio-political influence on changes in the state. Interdependence is observed between the specificity, inherent in different stages of distance education progress. Problematic issues in the field of innovative educational technologies are highlighted: socialization of students, difficulties in control of their knowledge, metacognitive monitoring of mastering the material by them etc. The degree of organization in operation of electronic cabinets is examined and other measures supposed to introduce the telecommunicative teaching means in Ukrainian higher education.

The paper is dedicated to a philosophical consideration of the transformation strategies for higher education, particularly those revealed by the current Covid-19 pandemic. The situation of the latter is presented as a particular form of the general VUCA characteristics of the today’s world of uncertainty, unpredictability and qualitative complexity (‘supercomplexity’). It is argued that the main result of our acknowledgement of the VUCA situation in the world for higher education is the image of the developed human personality becoming the main value and at the same time the main goal of higher education. Under the conditions of volatility and ambiguity, any existing ‘ready-made’ knowledge, as well as any instructions for effective rational behavior, turns to be inadequate. Because of that, it is no longer sufficient to have a set of ‘competences’ as a final result of the educational process at today’s university. Higher education has to turn to developing in its graduates certain multidisciplinary qualities, like critical independent thinking and ability to create one’s own knowledge, up to aiming at an all-round development of cultured personality. The paper argues that the education of critical and creative thinking is closely related to the transition to student-centered learning, as each individual student is to become a full-powered subject of the educational process according to one’s own interests, abilities and curricula, with the role of a teacher starting to resemble that of a moderator, the one who is to help his or her undergraduates to navigate through the vast ocean of available information in order for them to choose and to create their own, personal knowledge. The latter task is especially enforced by the distant and online learning having become popular during the Covid-19 pandemic: that form of learning puts especially high demands on self-discipline and self-responsibility of a student’s personality, while presenting itself as rather a supplement than a replacement to more traditional forms of higher education with personal communication between student and teacher.

The article is devoted to the formation of the multiculturalism policy in Canada. Main stages of Canadian history and their role in the emergence of multicultural ideology of the state are traced. Analyzing the successful Canadian experience in the effective regulation of internal national conflicts, are made conclusions about the reasons for such an efficient performance.