Institutional Transformation of Higher Education in EU Candidate Countries: Lessons for Ukraine

Abstract

In the context of Ukraine's acquisition of candidate status and the completion of the bilateral screening of Ukrainian legislation against the EU acquis in 2025, the institutional transformation of higher education as an element of successful European integration is of particular relevance. The purpose of the article is to identify the key institutional mechanisms of higher education transformation at the candidate and pre-negotiation stages, based on a comparative analysis of the experience of Poland, Bulgaria, Croatia, Moldova, and Georgia, and to formulate recommendations for Ukraine. The focus on higher education is justified by the fact that this sector is the subject of Chapter 26 of the EU acquis negotiation chapters and possesses the most developed architecture of European integration institutions — from the Bologna Process to the EHEA and EQAR. The methodological basis comprises comparative institutional analysis, quantitative analysis of chronological intervals, and systematic analysis of ENQA external review reports with qualitative coding. The study finds that successful institutional transformation of higher education requires not only formal legislative compliance but also a substantive shift in governance culture and accountability. Analysis of ENQA reports reveals three empirical patterns: agency independence is the most systemically vulnerable standard; resource capacity follows non-linear dynamics regardless of funding volumes; and procedural standards are more readily achieved than those requiring substantive institutional change. Priority directions for Ukraine are identified: full NAQA membership in ENQA and inclusion in EQAR, transition to performance-based funding and legislative consolidation of the agency's financial autonomy, and leveraging wartime reconstruction as a catalyst for institutional modernization. The institutional transformation of higher education is a strategic, rather than technical, dimension of Ukraine's European integration.