COMPETENCIES IN PROJECT (GRANT) ACTIVITIES AS A COMPONENT OF THE COMPETENCY-BASED APPROACH TO TRAINING HIGHER EDUCATION STUDENTS – FUTURE LAWYERS IN HIGHER EDUCATION INSTITUTIONS IN UKRAINE: REGULATORY AND LEGAL BASIS FOR CONSOLIDATION AND EDUCATIONAL PRA

Abstract

Relevance of the topic. Fundamental reform of the principles of higher legal education in Ukraine, with their definition in innovative draft regulatory and legal acts (Draft Concept for the Reform of Legal Education, Draft Concept of the Draft Law of Ukraine on Higher Legal Education and Initial Access to the Legal Profession), which will determine the innovative vector of its future, involves focusing attention on ensuring that future lawyers are sufficiently competent to meet the demands of the times and the needs of the professional legal market, in terms of their ability to be competitive in the project (grant) sphere, with the possibility of effective integration not only into the domestic legal professional space, but also into European and international analogues. This requires future lawyers to develop a sufficient level of professionally-oriented project (grant) competencies while still studying at higher education institutions, with the possibility of putting them into practice both in part (elementary level) and in full (comprehensive level). This, in turn, gives rise to the question of clarifying the sufficient level of regulation in the acts of current legislation of the obligation of higher education institutions that train future lawyers to include the relevant aspect of the educational load in the educational process and to ensure a sufficient level of resource support for it in order to provide applicants with a sufficient basis for the implementation of relevant competencies in the professional sphere. In addition, given the educational practices that have already been implemented in Ukraine to address this issue, there is an urgent need to characterise them in order to identify successful models. The scaling of these models within the domestic legal environment would be advantageous and would contribute to enhancing the quality of training for higher education students–future lawyers–in terms of their competitiveness in project (grant) activity. The objective of this study is to analyse the regulatory and legal acts that define the principles of training future lawyers in Ukraine in terms of developing project (grant) competencies in higher education students, as well as existing thematic educational practices in higher education institutions. The study will seek to justify the feasibility of recognising the relevant competencies as a standardised integral part of the outcome of the general competency-based approach for future specialists, and to formulate proposals for scaling up effective, proven practices for developing such competencies in higher education institutions. The object of the work is social relations directly related to the formation of project (grant) competencies in higher education seekers who are future lawyers. The subject of the work is the regulatory and legal basis for consolidating and educational practices for developing competencies in project (grant) activities as part of a competency-based approach to training higher education students–future lawyers at higher education institutions in Ukraine. Research methods constitute a set of general scientific and specialized approaches that enabled a comprehensive analysis of the issue in its development (dialectical method), a focused consideration of key problem areas (methods of analysis, synthesis, induction, and deduction), and the formulation of the core conceptual framework (special legal and logical methods). The study also involved identifying and detailing the existing normative legal foundations and educational practices (methods of grouping and classification), highlighting successful models (comparative legal method, expert evaluation method). Furthermore, the argumentation method was employed to substantiate the position and to develop conclusions regarding the imperative nature of recognising project (grant-related) competences as an integral part of the competency-based training outcomes for future legal professionals. Finally, forecasting and modelling methods were applied to formulate proposals for scaling successful educational practices related to the development of such competences across the higher education institution network. Conclusions. The project (grant) competencies of higher education applicants are an integral part of their practice-oriented competency-based training in higher education institutions, the regulatory framework for which is enshrined in regulatory and legal acts that define the principles of training future lawyers in higher education institutions in Ukraine, and which are duplicated in draft regulatory and legal acts that will determine the vectors of the future of domestic legal education. In light of the distinctive characteristics inherent to the regulation of the principles governing their formation during the educational process in higher education institutions, and considering the autonomy of these institutions with respect to the practical content, organisational and resource support of the relevant process, and the resolution of all prevailing issues in accordance with this, a range of practices have been implemented with regard to the formation of project (grant) competencies of higher education seekers (educational proposals of higher education institutions with interdisciplinary (with separate thematic modules). The components of the programme under discussion are of a selective or purely specialised nature. Current and final assessment of participants’ level is conducted through a variety of means, including testing, situational analysis, project preparation and public presentation, with the possibility of their varied combination. Direct testing and the formation of practical experience in their implementation are also included, with varying degrees and effectiveness of coordination of the involvement of applicants in HEI project initiatives.