Neoliberal Algorithm of Higher Economic Education as the Instrument for Deformation of Strategic Thinking

Abstract

Neoliberal paradigm of higher education, which is dominating in today’s global world, orients everyone who studies economic science for compliance with standards of self-regulating free market and recognition of its key role in social economy. Such educational algorithm, in our opinion, significantly narrows the range for comprehension of strategic solutions in specific historical economic problems. In particular, limiting the horizons of professional economists and focusing their attention on the capabilities of only one economic ideology significantly restricts freedom of thought and freedom of choice for strategies of economic behavior. Also we should say that mixed types of economic evolution in developed countries are not practically determined by the theoretical postulates defended by neoliberalism. Thus, critical analyses and significant transformation of implemented in the 1990’s ideological platform are long ago actualized not only in theory, but mainly in the level of socio-economic practices. In our opinion, modern Ukraine needs a fundamentally new approach for organization of educational process in the field of higher economic education. And the main focus of transformation in educational sphere should be namely strategic vectors of comprehension for the future of the country. That is, we must clearly define which kind of professional economists we are educating and for what purpose: should they create and implement effective strategies of socio-economic development or just to reproduce borrowed economic scenarios, formed by external global actors? Our answer to this question requires providing of an academic condition for creating self-sufficient professionals who will be able to take responsibility for development and implementation of productive socio-economic strategies.

Keywords

• higher economic education
• neoliberal ideology
• strategic thinking
• social management