СУТНІСТЬ ТА ШЛЯХИ ПІДВИЩЕННЯ ІМІДЖУ ЗАКЛАДУ ВИЩОЇ ОСВІТИ

Institutions of higher education (IHE) face the urgent problem of finding new sources of boosting their competitiveness, the basic indicator of which is image. The priority areas of strategic development of IHE are improving its image and finding ways to improve it. The study aims to clarify and systematize the concept of the image of an institution of higher education, consider its components and justify the ways of improvement under conditions of the digital economy. The paper introduces marketing, social-psychological, and managerial approaches to the concept of the image of IHE. The definition of the IHE’s image has been specified as an integrative category of the outlined approaches. The components and structure of the image of the institution of higher education have been studied, the ways of its improvement have been substantiated with the formation of a unique, special system of values (motto, coat of arms, anthem) and culture of the educational institution; diverse and high-quality educational services; development of relations with employers. The priorities of improving the IHE’s image in the digital economy era have been identified, namely: first, the presence of an informative website that is constantly updated and displays relevant information about the activities of the educational institution; secondly, providing access to the institution’s virtual library and its continuous development with the extension of the range of services provided to users; thirdly, improving the institution’s positioning in Webometrics, Scopus, QS World University, TOP 200 university rankings