University Rankings and the Problem of Competitiveness of National Universities of Post-Soviet Countries in Global Educational Space: The Case of Ukraine

University rankings during last decade became extremely popular and "fashionable" topic for general discussions and also for academic researches. Our idea is to look at ranking as a certain innovative technology, which enforce dramatic changes of university education in the context of globalization and increase the level of its competitiveness. The creation of global educational space, started in the last decades of the 20th century, provoked numerous challenges for national universities as the centre of producing of the certain type of cultural identity (Readings, 1997). In situation of these changes, rankings become a kind of condensed guidelines for university managers how to reform the university in context of creation of World-Class University in the framework of main tendencies of academic development of our time. International rankings give us a simplified picture of a World Class University. But without this simple picture it is impossible to identify the main dimensions for reforming the system of higher education, though it is a simple matter to imitate such reforms. The "language" of international ranking is now a kind of academic Esperanto, which gives to each University an opportunity to be a part of the modern globalized University system and the certain understanding how to be competitive in the framework of this system-and in this paper we made an attempt to analyse this process based on Ukrainian experience and the relevant data. We argued that the factor of ranking fostering educational reforms in Ukraine and enforces policymakers in the area of university education to be more sensitive to contemporary tendencies in global educational space.