The paper is devoted to the study of directions of improving competitiveness of a higher
educational institution. The authors emphasise the role of business-communities in formation of a new
model of higher education on the basis of partnership of higher schools and business communities. A
customer-orientation paradigm of the higher school, aimed, first of all, at development of partnership
relations between the higher school and the business-community, possibilities of higher school entrance
to an international arena of the educational market, and as a consequence, reorientation of the higher
educational institution to the demand of the main consumers of higher school services, was considered by
the authors as a reference point. The specificity of the customer-oriented approach in the context of the
study consists in consideration of the student’s role as a main link of an educational process, one’s
professional, organisational and social socialization in the process of study at the higher educational
institution. The customer-oriented approach as a management technology of development of the higher
school is built on the principles of identification of customers, provision of customers’ adherence to the
organisation by means of formation of corresponding models of teaching organisational culture,
differentiation of customers and personalization. Development of a joint strategy of higher schools and
the business-community, aimed at clear description of priority directions and final results of joint activity
taking into account specific peculiarities of performance of higher schools and the business community
The paper considers the formation of entrepreneurial climate in the conditions of social and economic development of the region. At present, one of the priority directions of social and economic policy of the region is the development of small businesses. In turn, the entrepreneurial or business climate acts as a paramount component of small business development. The study of the current state of entrepreneurial climate in the region makes it possible to define current problems of its development and ways to solve them. The social mechanism of entrepreneurial enterprise climate formation in the region is directly focused on the formation of certain motives, ideas, behavior patterns of all business subjects (business community and authorities). This is revealed through the following principles: state support, priority objectives, equal conditions, diversification, partnership, social responsibility, social protection, public representation, exchange of experience, competitive advantage. For successful formation of entrepreneurial climate in the sphere of small business as a factor of social and economic development in the region it is critical to use such methods as monitoring, ranking, public-private partnership, business partnership, social support, multilevel training, multi-purpose competition, social selection, social cooperation in order to ensure interaction of small enterprises based on the principles of mutual aid, transparency and autonomy.
