Exploring Change and Stability in Ukrainian Higher Education and Research: A Historical Analysis Through Multiple Critical Junctures

This article examines shifts in the structures of Ukrainian higher education and research based on historical institutionalism with a focus on the dynamics of change and stability during critical junctures. We show how critical political junctures influence higher education, how institutions of higher education and research have experienced conversion and drift, and how international trends such as quality assurance and the concept of the research university have been implemented in Ukraine. We find that gradual institutional change (conversion) and deliberate non-change (drift) in a political environment characterized by widespread corruption have resulted in a high degree of diversion of both financial and intellectual resources. Due to a lack of political support for the implementation of reforms and rampant political favoritism, organizational forms frequently are mismatched with their core organizational tasks.