The process of integration of the Ukrainian higher education system into the European Higher Education Area (EHEA) has a long history, primarily related not only to Eurointegration aspirations but also to the gradual adaptation of Ukrainian legislation to EU regulations. For aligning Ukraine's higher education and science legislation with that of the EU are primarily responsible the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine and the National Agency for Quality Assurance in Higher Education. In order to implement Ukraine's European integration commitments, such legal acts have been adopted, among others: Law of Ukraine "On Higher Education" (2014), "On Ratification of the Agreement between Ukraine and the European Union on the Participation of Ukraine in the European Union Framework Program for Scientific Research and Innovation "Horizon 2020" (2015), "On scientific and scientific-technical activities" (2015).

The Ukrainian higher education system has faced many challenges after the start of full-scale Russian aggression: damaged and destroyed educational institutions and infrastructure during the war, a decrease in funding of education and science, and relocation of participants of the educational process abroad, which led to a significant loss of students and teaching staff by Ukrainian universities. Nevertheless, on June 23, 2022, the European Council granted Ukraine candidate status for EU membership and noted the high level of sectoral integration of Ukrainian education and science. In Commission Opinion on Ukraine’s application for membership of the EU (European Commission, 2022) is emphasized that despite the sizable government spending in the sector (5.7% of GDP in 2021) and a ratio of gross enrolment in tertiary education of above 80%, the curricula and overall quality could be better aligned with labour market needs. Expenditure on research and development, which is mostly concentrated in the public sector and had been declining over the last ten years to below 0.5% in 2020, remained insufficient to heighten human capital in a sustainable way.

In order to improve the financial condition and increase the competitiveness of Ukrainian universities, the Strategy for the Development of Higher Education in Ukraine for 2022-2032 (Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine, 2022a) is implementing. This Strategy also includes the issue of Ukraine's integration into the EHEA. The Strategy provides a detailed roadmap for the reconstruction and continuation of the reforms of the higher education system in the war and the post-war periods. Implementation of the tasks set forth in the Strategy will help limit the devastating effects of a full-scale invasion of the Russian Federation. In addition, the Operational Plan for the implementation of this Strategy in 2022-2024 was approved (Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine, 2022b).

In issues of European integration, the experience of Poland, a country close to Ukraine in geographical, sociocultural, economic, and other aspects, is particularly relevant. In the early 1990s, Poland had a similar level of economic development, but currently, it has been a member of the EU and the European educational area for about 20 years.

The main research question of this paper is how to improve the Ukrainian higher education system and increase the possibilities of its integration into the EHEA? And how the Polish experience in this issue can help?

The main objectives are:

1) to conduct the comparative analysis of Ukrainian and Polish higher educational systems,

2) to analyse the Polish Eurointegration experience in the context of searching for possibilities of improvement of the Ukrainian higher education system,

3) to conduct the analysis the factors that hold back Ukraine's EU integration aspirations based on a survey of Ukrainian academic teachers,

4) to identify recommendations for integration into the EHEA and increasing the competitiveness of Ukrainian universities.

The comparative analysis of the higher education systems is based on the: 1) desk research of the current situation of Ukrainian and Polish education, analysis of the main differences between systems of higher education in Ukraine and Poland, from the point of view of working conditions, career prospects, and conducting scientific research, 2) desk research of the issues of integration the Ukrainian higher education system into the EHEA and possibilities of use of the Polish Eurointegration experience: the analysis of Ukrainian legal acts on European integration and analytical notes of the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine, the analysis of changes in the education system of Poland after the integration with the EU (which it experienced after 2004), 3) the survey of Ukrainian academic teachers: the analysis of the factors that hold back Ukraine's EU integration aspirations, the shadow sector and pathologies of the higher education system ("factories" of doctoral and habilitation theses, a large number of scientific works (not only doctorates, but also scientific articles) done on commission, violations of the rules of academic integrity by both students and academic teachers, unhealthy relationships in teams and the contemptuous attitude of department heads towards academic teachers, the system of unofficial fees for defending doctoral and habitation theses, bribery).

As a result of comparative analysis, it was found that the higher performance of Polish higher education resulted primarily from such factors as a higher level of internationalization of scientific research results and teaching achievements; wider opportunities to obtain international grants and projects; better-balanced workload of academic teachers; higher level of salaries, better working conditions and the perception of academic institutions as a good employer; result-oriented performance appraisal of academic teachers; a higher share of publications in Scopus and WoS in the total number of research publications; less authoritarian and result-oriented business leadership and communication style at universities. In the context of the determined problems and shortcomings of the Ukrainian higher education system, as well as the results of the comparative analysis of the higher education systems in Ukraine and Poland and the survey of Ukrainian academic teachers, such recommendations for integration into the European Union and increasing the competitiveness of Ukrainian higher education institutions have been determined: the improvement of the institutional environment of higher education; harmonization of Ukrainian legislative acts on higher education and science with those of the European Union; increasing the competitiveness of the national educational system due to the consolidation of universities; using the contemporary crisis as an opportunity to rebuild a more efficient higher education system through a series of institutional changes.

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