Foresight-studies in institutions of higher education

The article defined the role of Foresight-studies in the current conditions of higher education system development. Different types of Foresight-studies in different countries and their application for educational purposes are analyzed. Methods of conducting foresight research are revealed on the basis of which the most common among them are: Delphi method, SWOT analysis, Information flow analysis, Focus Group Technique, Expert Panels, Scenario Planning, Highlight Key Technologies, Technology Mapping, Development of Roadmaps, Source Scanning, “Analysis of Global Trends”, “PEST Analysis”, “Reverse Scenarios” etc. It is stated that the foresight can be called a technology of constructive attitude towards the future. It involves the development of a system of private forecasts in the most important areas of scientific and technological progress and a comprehensive forecast of scientific and technological development. The article gives examples of university Foresight-studies and their role in forming a modern specialist with forecasting skills. The focus of the study is pay special attention on the Foresight-study conducted at the School of Foreign Languages of V. N. Kharkiv National University entitled “Strategy for the Development of Education at The School of Foreign Languages”. The study was carried out using the Delphi method and included an online survey (digital questionnaire) created in Google forms and included two stages. The first stage was aimed at revealing the general direction of the development of the educational process, and the second stage was aimed at specifying teaching strategies that could be used in the future by the School of Foreign Languages. The survey was attended by 105 people who work or study at the university. It is established that the priority directions of development of educational process at the School of Foreign Languages may be: introduction of the latest digital technologies into the educational process; increase of teaching efficiency and distribution of time between participants of educational process (transformation of the role of the lecturer); communicative aspect through improvement of teaching methods at the School of Foreign Languages, namely the involvement of foreign language speakers in teaching and practice, conducting more foreign language activities, changing the criteria for assessing students’ success by foreign models.