INCLUSIVE EDUCATION IN HIGHER SCHOOL: CHALLENGES AND PERSPECTIVES

Abstract

The article analyzes the main challenges facing higher education institutions in the process of realization of inclusive education. The implementation of inclusive education is definitely the progressive trend in the development of the Ukrainian education, as the number of people with special educational needs, able to gain knowledge and socialize, is increasing every year. Legal and regulatory framework for education of people with special educational needs has been highlighted. Through regulatory and legislative reforms, an inclusive model of education is becoming increasingly feasible, provided that the essence and necessity of inclusion are properly understood by all actors in the educational process and by society in general. The key aspects of organization of inclusive educational environment, vocational training of teachers to work in newly created conditions, psychological-pedagogical basis of inclusive education and socio-cultural adaptation of students have been investigated. The systemic nature of changes envisages the restructuring of the educational space of higher education institutions in accordance with the individual possibilities of young people with special educational needs. This structural transformation of education implies a long-term, step-by-step and costly process to solve actual social problems of all participants in inclusive education. Fundamental changes in the educational space are related to creation of the accessible environment, universal design of the infrastructure, availability of special devices for different categories of students, on the one hand, and to the formation of innovative structural and informative aspects of the holistic pedagogical process, shaping of a new «segment» of inclusive education due to parallel realization of vocational-educational and rehabilitativedeveloping technologies, on the other hand. Priorities for improving the process of inclusion in higher education institutions have been determined on the basis of the analysis of European countries’ experience. Realization of the systemic work through engagement of students with special educational needs in training by various specialties, promotion of higher education among students with special educational needs, savvy career guidance counseling with vulnerable school children should initially be emphasized as the advanced directions regarding the development of inclusive higher education.