INCREASING COMPETITIVENESS OF HIGHER EDUCATION IN UKRAINE THROUGH VALUE CO-CREATION STRATEGY

The value co-creation concept has become a marketing answer to today's challenges, the economy is facing. The field of higher education (HE) is experiencing the same pressure of outer factors as any other service industry. As a result, service providers (colleges and universities), as well as customers (students, graduates and employers) are dissatisfied with the quality of services and the level of generated value. The aim of this paper is to discuss how universities can use value co-creation concept to improve the situation. We consider social media to become engagement platforms for enabling value co-creation. Therefore, this paper discusses their current usage and perspectives for Ukrainian HE in creating mutual value. Top-five Ukrainian universities in the Webometrics rating are analyzed in terms of their SM activities on Facebook, YouTube and Instagram. The value itself is considered a multi-dimensional category and the co-creation directions are analyzed in terms of the theory of consumption values (TCV) and from the perspective of two customer groups - students and employers. Recommendations include practical tools on engaging students and employers to the VCC process, grouped by the type of the value obtained.