University cultural activity: evaluation necessity

The article analyzes the problems of evaluation of cultural activity of modern classical universities. It is emphasized that in the postmodern world this activity requires a triune symbiosis of science, education and culture, which should mutually enrich each other, i.e. it is proved that a new paradigm of university life is needed. The example of the activity of V. N. Karazin Kharkiv National University demonstrates how the desire of a modern university to be not only a center of knowledge and professional education, but also a center of active creative cultural practices is manifested. It is noted that such practices are very diverse, that they differ in their focus, objectives and forms of work. It turns out that due to such diversity there is a need to subordinate these practices to the main goal and determine an integrated assessment of their effectiveness, development and improvement. It is demonstrated that the latest model of evaluation as an interactive, communicative, self-corrected process of evaluating the classical university cultural activities is best suited for the development of the university as a cultural hub. This model is described as contributing to a deeper and more systematic understanding and development of such activities. In this sense, evaluation is seen not so much as a tool for evaluating activities, but as a tool for its development and improvement in changing conditions, i.e. in emergent social contexts. It is argued that in the evaluationary process, in addition to communication, research methods to study and analyze the opinions, positions, proposals, critiques of all actors and beneficiaries of the cultural project should be actively used. As such, sociological surveys, expert assessments, focused group interviews are provided, which provide valuable information about the real state of the project, its strengths and weaknesses, current issues. Conclusions about the status of evaluation in modern educational practices are formulated. Potential directions of further researches of evaluative practices in educational contexts are described.