A NOVEL MODEL OF LIFELONG LEARNING AS EXEMPLIFIED BY THE ACTIVITIES OF KHARKIV UNIVERSITY OF HUMANITIES “PEOPLE’S UKRAINIAN ACADEMY”

Abstract

The complex and contradictory processes of globalization have paved their way into the education sector and proved to be just about one of the most difficult fundamental challenges faced by educational institutions. On a practical level, the above challenge has turned out to be more serious than the one the university world faced in the Middle Ages. Globalization has questioned the very viability of the modern system of the organization of post-secondary education, which is based on the university..... The university world has experienced major changes which affected all the aspects and perspectives of its activities. These are the conditions under which difficult if not risky work to adapt to the challenges of the era of globalization is currently taking place. The introduction of the Lifelong Learning (LL) educational model has become one of the possible responses to the globalization challenges. Conceptually, this model has been actively implemented in the educational process since the end of the 20th century. For a variety of reasons, the LL model is being actively implemented in Ukraine with Kharkiv being one of its most interesting experimental sites since here the concept has transformed into the practice of a number of educational projects. Kharkiv University of Humanities “People’s Ukrainian Academy” (KhUH “PUA”), an innovative scientific and educational complex (1991), became the first educational institution to implement this model. It was initially strategically focused on experimental research activities within the framework of the LL concept. The article attempts to describe in the most general terms and analyze the original model of Lifelong Learning in the Humanities, which KhUH “PUA” has been implementing for almost three decades.