The research reveals the main ways of transformation of higher education systems of Eastern European countries in the context of the process of internationalization. The process of internationalization has been viewed as the process of cooperation with state authorities, university leaders, faculty and students from different countries to support the international component of higher education. After having analyzed the changes in the systems of higher education in Eastern Europe from 1991 up to the present, it has been noted that the process of internationalization is the factor that influences the transformation of the higher education system towards the modernization of the basic structural elements of national education system, updating of content and training technologies, improvement of the quality of education in the context of growing needs of labor market, monitoring and creative use of pedagogical experience of foreign countries.
It has been stated that the essence of reforms in higher education in the countries of Eastern Europe is to implement measures to improve quality of educational services. New legislative acts include changes in the organization and management of research and higher education, which led the way to internal reforms in HEIs. Educational legislation of these countries became supported by a number of laws ensuring the democratization of education and research management. These laws provide higher education institutions with greater autonomy in terms of teaching and research, allow them to make independent decisions regarding their tasks and ways of their implementation, both at the general university level and at the level of the main structural divisions. All this has been enhanced by the process of internationalization and has led to the intensification of many of its aspects in the national systems of higher education in the countries of Eastern Europe.
The empirical analysis has been carried out with Polish, Chech, Slovak Republics and Ukraine as the objects of the analysis. Corrresponding national contexts of internationalization of higher education in the study have been outlined through the prism of the whole East European, where the end of the XX - beginning of the XXI century can be named as the period of transformations in socio-political life of the countries and as the period of convergence of national higher education systems. It has been emphasized that with the establishment of EHEA in the context of the integration of European education systems internationalization is one of the priority directions for reforming national higher education systems; it promotes greater access to higher education for representatives of different countries; universalization of diverse knowledge; enhancement of international cooperation at national and institutional levels; enhancement of academic mobility; orientation of education to the realities of the globalized world of the XXI century with the active development of public-private partnerships in education, etc.
It can be concluded that the analysis of East European experience of national higher education internationalization with the aim to further implement its elements in the structure of Polish, Czech, Slovak, Ukrainian higher education will facilitate the development of new ideas and approaches to training specialists and will create opportunities and mechanisms for enhancement of quality of national higher education systems. The research states that the accession of Eastern European countries to the European Union has given them new opportunities to develop national higher education and has ensured active participation in EU-funded international research and education programmes, access to EU funds for developing educational infrastructure and improving the quality of education. As a result, national higher education institutions (HEIs) in Eastern Europe have experienced an influx of foreign students and have shown an increase in student and staff outcoming mobility. This situation, in turn, has created competition in the field of international student recruitment and attraction of external funding in the field of research and innovation.
Key words: Internationalization Process, National Higher Education System, National Higher Education Institution, Eastern Europe Countries, Comparative Analysis, European Educational Restructuring.
