The internationalisation of higher education in an asymmetric partnership – a challenge for the leadership of Ukrainian universities and experiences in solving the problem

The internationalisation of higher education has evolved from sporadic contacts among top professors for their personal scientific or educational purposes to wide-ranging programmes of cooperation based on common values and understandings of the mission of the modern university. At the same time, such cooperation is accompanied by a struggle for human resources, students and scientific research grants. According to experts, international cooperation between universities is also becoming the norm in the post-Soviet area, rapidly undergoing a degree of evolution, and resulting in the transition from sporadic contacts between teachers and scientists to broad cooperation. University cooperation has acquired features of strategic partnerships between universities and differs from the usual bilateral relations. These partnerships are usually mutually beneficial and designed for the future. However, certain problems in the post-Soviet space remain, raising the question: how should a university build a strategic partnership when the university systems of different countries have an asymmetric relationship?