The modern Russian economy is characterised by considerable regional disparities concerning distribution of incomes and well-being of the citizens. These imbalances can be especially noticeable when analysing various sectors which play an important role in the economic progress of the regions. Within the framework of this study, based on a comparative analysis, the degree of dependence of the living standard on the electromechanical industry is assessed. The hypothesis is advanced that the outstripping growth of this sector has a significant positive impact on indicators of employment, income, and quality of life. Testing this hypothesis will make it possible to create a state policy for equalising the socio-economic development of Russian regions with consideration to the industry specialisation of their economies. Statistical data on personal income, quality of life indices, as well as specific indicators of industry progress in different regions of the Federation were used for the study. The employed methods of correlation and regression analysis identified the links between the level of sectoral development and economic well-being of the territorial units. The analysis showed that such regions as Moscow, St. Petersburg, where an infrastructure sector leads, and a number of oil-producing Siberian regions demonstrate higher indicators of income and quality of life. At the same time, subjects with a less developed sector, for instance some areas of the North Caucasus and Siberia, are experiencing difficulties in achieving similar levels of welfare.

   The article presents the results of scientific systematisation on the theory of controlling and analyses approaches of the Russian authors to the definition of controlling concept. In the course of the current study, the authors used methods of classification, mathematical modeling, grouping, and comparative analysis. On the basis of economic theory provisions, the authors proposed their own definitions of controlling, controlling system, subject area of controlling. Besides, certain ways to assess effectiveness of organisations’ work in the public sector were developed. Economic modeling was conducted
with consideration to existence of restrictions imposed on the objects of the study: the volume of goods produced is determined by target indicators, economic resources are limited by budgetary obligations. It has been established that efficiency of enterprises in the described sector is due to the volume ratio of input production factors (Cf) and produced economic goods (Qf). An increased zone of efficiency on the production flow chart of the variable pro duct and usage of these factors will indicate an enhanced productivity. In terms of the economic theory, improving effectiveness of implementation of measures is possible in the following cases: reduction in the cost of the used production factors, reduction of their volume, increase of the return on application of them (shifting the total product curve upwards).

   The article discusses marketing tools for promotion of funeral services wi thin the framework of the digital marketing communications model. The key characteristics of consumers’ perception of these services, the features and methods of effectiveness improvement of marketing promotion in the digital environment are highlighted. Practical implementation of marketing tools on the example of a funeral agency is considered with special attention. It is proved that effectiveness improvement of the enterprise website as a model of digital marketing communication in the context of the specifics of the services perception by target audience largely depends on the formation of trust through various communication tools. Within the framework of the mo del developed by the author it is substantiated that the maximum effect from the marketing tools implementation can be achieved only in the unity of all its functions (informational, communicative, marketing, interactional, reputational). Moreover, as a result of the analysis, it was discovered that the most important function for consumers, due to the market specifics, is the reputa tional function. On the basis of this conclusion, the company was rebranded and the website was transformed. The made changes, as shown by statistics, have had a positive impact on the website effectiveness.

   In a growing food delivery market, understanding consumer behaviour becomes a basic factor in the development of food delivery services. This study identifies criteria for selecting a restaurant by consumers and scenarios of ordering food delivery. The main purpose of the research is to define consumer objectives and behavioural scenarios of clients connected to services of ready and chilled meals delivery. Quantitative surveys and in-depth interviews were employed as research methods. The findings and conclusions were approved through test marketing campaigns. On the basis of the analysis results, three key consumer objectives were presented: “quick meal”, “pleasing oneself and loved ones”, and “feeding a company”. Also, various scenarios were high-lighted, according to which customers meet their consumer objectives under different conditions. In addition, two levels of criteria for selecting a restaurant were given: primary criteria that determine the restaurant’s compliance with the customer’s objectives, and secondary criteria that are used to choose the best option among suitable restaurants. The study not only expands the current understanding of consumer preferences and behavioural scenarios in the context of food delivery but also provides practical recommendations to optimise existing delivery services and to develop the new ones.

   Diversity of economic activities and their diversification determine the key factors of sustainable development of the Russian regions. 

   The relevance of this study lies in the search of connection between the present economic process and such parameters of sustainable development as social well-being, economic and environmental stability.

   The research is based on examination of data of the Federal State Statistics Service, its publications, and other scien tific sources. The methodology includes a comprehensive analysis of economic indicators of diversification and their correlation with the three indices described above. The presented results demonstrate a direct connection between the level of economic diversification in the regions and their sustainable development. It is shown that regions with a more varied economic structure have higher indicators in the field of social stability, economic growth, and environmental safety. The authors determine that diversification as a whole does not depend on the production orientation or the traditional industrial equipment of a region. It is identified that innovative practices may be implemented in almost all subjects in case if a number of administrative barriers will be overcome. It is revealed that the level of sustainability of regional development directly depends on the degree of diversification of economic processes.

   Socio-economic development of regions depends on the level of interaction between them on the basis of their industry specialisation.

   The purpose of the study is to determine the potential for the industrial production development of the regions for further activation of interregional interaction.

   Types of industrial production of the Republic of Bashkortostan and its neighbouring regions are the object of the study.

   The paper assesses its development in dynamics and statics by type of activity. Its specialisation is determined, the leading types of economic activity are identified with the use of localisation coefficients and localisation intensity. The development level of industrial production in the Russian Federation and in the regions near the Republic of Bashkortostan have similar trends, however, sharp fluctuations occur in Chelyabinsk and Sverdlovsk regions. In these subjects, the largest share in manufacturing belongs to metallurgical production. Also many activities that are to be in the zone of increased localisation in terms of the turnover of an organisation and the number of employees are actually in the zone of low effective localisation. Industrial production in the Udmurt Republic and the Republic of Tatarstan is less affected by the fluctuations. In Bashkortostan, the largest share is occupied by extraction of coke and petroleum products. To strengthen technological sovereignty, it is necessary to activate the interaction between regions in industrial production.

   The article discusses the problems of the current situation and development of the Russian industrial enterprises in the context of sanctions that were imposed against Russia in 2014 and significantly increased in 2022.

   The subject of study is the peculiarities of state support of the country’s industry: the conducted support policy, funding, sectoral priorities, and determination of the most important directions of this assistance.

   The article is devoted to issues of improving state policy based on the introduced restrictions. The author also considers the activities of the main
industrial enterprises of the Russian Federation placed under sanctions and a decrease in their performance indicators.

   The purpose of the work is to study measures and principles of state support of industrial companies during the period of sanctions pressure.

   The research methodology includes the analysis of statistical data on the volume of industrial enterprises production over the past three years, comparison of indicators, as well as the study of various sources, articles, monographs on state support during the period of sanctions. The results obtained are generalising conclusions that during this complicated period competent state policy aimed at direct assistance to key enterprises in the country is of great importance.

   The current research examines the mechanism of concession agreements, functioning in the sphere of heat supply, the ways of its conclusion, its advantages and differences from lease agreements. The effectiveness of the use of concessions is proved on the example of Voronezh and Perm energy companies. The renewal of the Russian heat supply system is, unfortunately, extremely slow. Despite the measures taken, the dynamics of equipment failures, accidents and heat losses have not yet been changed: their number is still gro wing. In a year, it is possible to update only half of the fixed assets from the need. The reasons for this are their sharp moral and physical ageing and lack of investors who would finance reconstruction, modernisation and erection of new heating system objects. The owners of the systems in many Russian regions are municipalities whose budget funds are insufficient to upgrade them. Mechanisms of public-private partnership (concession agreements are one of its manifestations) together with the “alternative boiler house” mo del should contribute to rectifying the situation. However, unconscientiousness of some investors, the failure to fulfill their obligations for construction and reconstruction of heat supply systems question the effectiveness of the mechanism and reduces them to lease agreements involving only operation of leased worn equipment. According to the research, the authors concluded that it is necessary to improve the discussed mechanism, monitor implementation of the agreements and strengthen administrative responsibility for non-compliance.

   The most critical resource for development and promotion of Russian regions and cities, along with other strategic management tools, is regional bran ding. Branding effectiveness depends on many conditions, including the depth, consistency and scientific understanding of the brand as a tool of a region’s attractiveness. Using a theoretical analysis of scientific literature, the article explains the concept of “regional brand” in terms of key characteristics definition that reflect the specificity of the term. The results of the study concluded that the development and promotion of a regional brand is a complex process which starts with the formation of an integrated system of brand elements. The analysis of experience in designing of the Russian regions’ own brands and the use of the structural modeling method allowed to present a regional brand formation model, describing the main elements of the brand. In the presented model the following six elements were identified: brand platform, positioning, internal brand power, external brand power, communications, resonance. The correlation of each element in the overall system, their importance and influence on the formation of the image and increase in effectiveness of a region’s promotion were determined. The obtained results may be required by representatives of regional administrations that address the branding of territories issues.

   Due to constant tightening of the sanctions policy against Russia, the stable manufacturing industry is among fundamental factors of sustainability and active growth of the country’s economy. Since the beginning of 2022, sufficient efforts have been made to neutralise the negative consequences of foreign companies leaving the market and replace imported goods and technologies with domestic ones. An urgent issue is to assess importance of stable manufacturing industry for the economy of the country and its regions. For the industrially developed North-Western macroregion, which has been seriously affected by the disruption of relations with the European Union and the United States of America, the rapid restructuring and reorientation of commodity flows is an important task, alongside with the increase in production of high value-added goods based on the resources of the macroregion.

   The purpose of the study was to identify how much factors of development of the manufacturing industry influence gross regional product (hereinafter referred to as GRP) per capita in the North-Western Federal District (hereinafter referred to as NWFD).

   The constructed econometric model made it possible to assess the most serious factors, the increase of which will allow to influence the economy of the macroregion. It is proved that the average number of employees of small enterprises has the strongest positive impact on GRP per capita in the NWFD as its increase by 1 person leads to an increase in the resulting variable by 1,055.76 rubles, all other things being equal. Thus, currently, the activation of the manufacturing industry with more employees of small business will become a driver of recovery and sustainable development of the macroregion’s economy.

   The article is devoted to the tools for promoting business ecosystems in Russia in 2023.

   The purpose of the study is to determine the tools.

   The methodological basis of this study was formed by the main works on business and business ecosystems promotion. In the course of the research, the follo wing sources were examined: the Internet resources of Russian companies and the object in question, mass media sources in the field of marketing, advertising and public relations, as well as the works of Russian and foreign authors. The main tools of business promotion with the help of geo-services, influencers, and electronic mail are considered, and their features, application specifics are described. The following directions that Russian business ecosystems are already using to promote their goods and services are analysed: management of their own media, large-scale rebranding, which affects positioning and visual component, holding various events aimed at achieving a company’s goals. The article also predicts the direction of trends in business ecosystems promotion. They can be included by new business ecosystems when building their own marketing strategy. Further research in this field may be connected to work on determining the stages of business ecosystems promotion, understanding how this can be done with consideration to the specificity of a particular company.

   The study of the resource base impact on the development of building materials industry economy is presented. The proposed analysis showed the need to synchronise intersectoral interactions aimed at the progressive development of the construction industry. The suggested approach to the formation of a mechanism for sustainable development predetermines the business model within the framework of sustainable development concept and the opportunities, the emergence of which is due to digitalisation of industrial relations. In the study, the author defines the contexts that form the approach to sustainability of development. It is offered to consider the given phenomenon in the economic context through the reproduction component. The offer made it possible to formulate an approach to the creation of a mechanism for this occurrence based on the resource potential formation, the use of which should lead to increasing returns when changing a business model of a set of enterprises. The mentioned model of interaction between enterprises is oriented towards sustainable industrial development, contributes to application of new approaches to reproduction of basic funds, distribution of resources and resource base formation. The usage of the ecosystem approach while considering the issue of sustainable economic development of building materials industry stipulated interaction of related sectors as the main priority. This is done to increase competitiveness and provide the strategy of building materials industry development.

   The experience of development banks has led to the conclusion that they directly affect economic growth: projects implementation ensures production of goods and services, creates new workplaces. The growth of gross domestic product is not always inclusive and does not guarantee equal accessibility of all segments of the population to economic opportunities, education, health care, etc. on a constant basis. The Asian Development Bank (hereinafter referred to as the Bank) purposefully influences inclusive economic growth (hereinafter referred to as IEG) in the countries of the Asia-Pacific (hereinafter referred to as APAC) with the help of its own IEG model and allows assessing public administration, economic growth, social support, using 35 indicators, which contributes to reduction of poverty and inequality. For each country the Bank develops its own strategy of cooperation. The authors conducted a hier-archical clustering of the APAC countries based on the values of 24 IEG indicators of the Bank (for two datasets). The APAC countries in each cluster are characterised by approximately the same general level of IEG. The clustering model provides an opportunity to plan projects and assess their influence on IEG, excludes disadvantages of the so-called composite indices that could describe the IEG of a country or region with one value, compensates potential inaccuracies of the basic data.

   The present research shows the essence of the mobilisation relations system and gives their brief description, considers their objective correlation with the productive forces of society and their significance in the period of increasing confrontation with unfriendly Western countries. This system is revealed as experience of formation of these relations according to N. A. Voznesensky and also as a condition for improvement of the Russian economic security today. Methodologically, the authors consider the unity of historical and logical directions in the development of the system, its differences from the traditional statemarket model of relations with the use of updated political and economic science. The results contain the experience of modernisation of the material and technical base of the Russian economy, mobilisation regulation of business relations and the formation of a new intellectually advanced, versatile and mobile employee. Besides, applied directions for their improvement in the form of effective employment of these processes and the modernised state management mission are also part of the results. Moreover, each of these components, their various combinations and integral set are examined in terms of improving the security of society and each of its members. The research concludes that it is necessary to accelerate the implementation of mobilisation regulation of the society development and its economy, aimed at the further improvement of their security.

   The relevance of the article is due to the fact that the issue of sovereignty is now firmly rooted in digital space and manifests in many areas.

   In particular, it is reflected in actions to relocalise production, support through the state, and attract investments.

   The purpose of this study is theoretical substantiation of the directions in forming a policy of technological sovereignty in the zones of advanced socio-economic development with the help of private and public capital.

   The following methods were used: comparative and logical analysis in studying of trends in the digital economy, synthesis and generalisation in determining the essence of technological sovereignty and formulating directions to improve these processes. The article gives reasons for the phenomenon being in fact an object of industrial policy, competition,
innovative development, and geopolitical studies, which actualises the issue of its formation. Moreover, territories of advanced socio-economic development may become an effective mechanism in this case, as they have created favourable conditions to attract private and public capital. The research presents vectors of technological sovereignty establishment with consideration to the possibilities of a regional aspect (the mentioned territories) and an investment one (a combination of both types of capital).

   The level of accessibility to various sources of financing plays a crucial role
in formation of an investment strategy.

   The purpose of the article is to identify and analyse factors influencing the volume of investment expenditures of public Russian enterprises in the real economic sector with consideration to the degree of financial constraints.

   The research is based on division of companies into more and less financially constrained. The following characteristics were chosen as criteria for segmentation: size, age of the business and placement of corporate bonds on the exchange. A regression analysis specified similarities and differences among determinants of investment activity of more and less financially constrained companies. The key common factor that has an impact on this characteristic of organisations in both groups is investment expenditures of the previous period. Investments of more financially constrained companies have shown a strong dependence on indicators of current cash flow and capital structure. At the same time, the volume of expenses of less financially constrained companies is more influenced by the indicator of accumulated tangible assets. The results of the research may interest enterprises in the real sector when assessing the degree of their financial constraint and determining the volume of investment expenditures.

   The deterioration of the economic situation in the country is certainly reflected in the financial performance of small and medium enterprise sector (hereinafter referred to as SME sector). The article attempts to study the degree of impact of forced urgent measures introduced by state authorities to contain the spread of coronavirus infection on financial performance of the sector. The authors conducted an overview study of scientific publications written by leading professional analysts on the problems of the economic situation in the Russian entrepreneurial segment, as well as on the relevance and effectiveness of government measures to support small and medium-sized enterprises. The assessment of changes in the final performance indicators of each of the three SME sector elements (micro, small and medium enterprises) over the past three years is given. When studying the dynamics of the components of the balanced financial result, horizontal analysis was used, alongside with the method of absolute differences, calculation of growth rates, and index method. The made analysis revealed a sharp deterioration in financial performance during the most severe quarantine restrictions in 2020 and an improvement in the economic situation after their partial abolition in 2021. It was noted that the risk of mass bankruptcy of enterprises in the SME sector was compensated by large-scale state support. It was determined that the protective restrictions imposed to localise the epidemic have aggravated the existing problems of small and medium-sized businesses. The article shows that the main risks of the studied segment will persist in the near future. In this regard, it is necessary to improve the tools of state regulation of SME sector development with consideration to the accumulated experience of anti-crisis management.

   Ensuring the financial sovereignty of the country is one of the key tasks to achieve national goals by 2030. The financial system of the Russian Federation (hereinafter referred to as Russia, RF) should do everything necessary to guarantee the financing of those needs that had been previously funded by Western countries. To do this, the inflow of long-term savings and investments in fast-growing high-tech projects is to be provided. President of RF during the meeting with members of the Government of Russia on January 11, 2023 noted the main directions of the Government’s work for 2023. One of the directions is strengthening the financial sovereignty of the RF which is a condition to increase investments in the country’s economy. M. V. Mishustin, Prime Minister of Russia, speaking with the Government’s report in the State Duma of Russia, mentioned that to achieve the financial sovereignty of the state is one of the important tasks for the current year. Attracting long-term financial resources to the economy, investment attractiveness and providing financial support for fast-growing technology companies are the main conditions to solve this problem. Thus, the Government of RF have developed five main directions for the task implementation in order to fulfill the instructions of President of RF.

   The purpose of this article is to consider the main measures aimed at achieving financial sovereignty in the current conditions.

   The activities of the Government of RF and the Bank of Russia on the implementation of the discussed mea sures are analysed as the results of the study. The main conclusion of the article is the justification of financial sovereignty role in increasing the prestige of the Russian economy.

   In the current article, financial aspects of the state environmental policy in Russia at the present stage are observed. The authors study the scale of financial resources allocated for environmental protection at the macroeconomic level in the context of ensuring environmental safety. The review of periodical press materials allowed us to highlight the most pressing issues of eco-investment. When processing statistical data to conduct an analysis of the costs of implementing environmental measures and assessing dissipation of funds in the main categories of expenses, the authors used dyna mic and structural methods of economic analysis with determination of absolute and relative difference. A comparative method was implied in comparing retrospective information to monitor annual budget allocations for the needs of ecology alongside with the table method combined with the graphical one. The assessment of expenditures for environmental protection in Russia for 2017–2021 showed an annual stable growth with an almost twofold increase in the whole five years. A structural analysis in the context of environmental protection activities allowed us to identify the dominant cost items as the most significant in the implementation of state environmental policy. A comparative analysis of the unit costs of environmental protection in percentage of gross domestic product through international comparisons indicates the underfunding of this area by Russian state authorities. The limited amount of finance to ensure rational use of natural resources requires implementing principal measures in accordance with the main priorities of state policy in the field along with application of the most effective ecological and economic tools.

   The paper attempts to overcome subjectivism in the evaluation of dissertation research of the socio-humanitarian block, thus the positions of authors on this issue when measuring the identified scientific novelty are considered. The revealed contradictions that affect the subjective evaluation in the process of preparing and defending a dissertation are analysed. The author’s classification of novelty is proposed, having made possible to show its dependence on the amount of the studied sources. At present, the problem is not in determining the notion, but in determining what is already known. It is established that publication of “pure” and “local” author’s novelty contributes to its objective evaluation through procedures for protection of scientific works and defence of copyright. The current work substantiates the necessity to introduce a number of organisational and economic tools: video recording of the author’s speech at scientific conferences with the provisions to be defended for their comprehensive discussion; publication of draft conclusions on the dissertation of the Higher Attestation Commission’s expert council before its meeting; creation of an independent database of dissertation researches. It is concluded that the official publication of a scientific work as a civil-law me thod of its protection is an objective tool. It will help establish qualitative novelty in the dissertation and try to solve the problem of conventionality bet ween all interested subjects.

   The current scientific article presents the results of assessing the living standard of elderly people, their well-being, livelihoods in conditions of economic instability and changing social space. Global and all-Russian official statistics indicate an increase in the ageing process of the population. Besides, there is a steady growth in the share of pensioners in its structure. In recent years, in the Russian Federation in general and in the Republic of Bashkortostan in particular, there has been a real trend of ageing population, longer life expectancy (73 years), and a greater number of senior citizens in total (28.5 %). Old age is associated with a period of loss and separation from the usual way of life. The assessment found the key problems of this category: deterioration of health, narrowing of the social world, loneliness, low living standard, and financial difficulties. It is identified that the Russian pensioners belong to the main group of the poor, especially the lonely ones. Their poverty is determined by a decline in living standards and material security, rising inflation, and the high cost of medical care along with utilities. It was revealed that for an elderly person, the main income source is a pension, and in-kind income from personal subsidiary farms is an additional one. Despite the generally low level of pensions, a significant part of non-working pensioners provides financial support to their family members at the cost of personal well-being. Therefore, family values dominate in the minds of older people, and many of their needs are realised in the household.

   One of the key factors influencing the political development and stability of the Russian Federation (hereinafter referred to as RF, Russia) is trust of citizens in political and social institutions. At the same time, youth is part of the Russian society with which the strategic prospects for progress of the country and vectors of socio-economic transformations are connected. The insufficient degree of confidence in the authorities will hinder effective implementation of societal development processes that also occur in socio-economic and institutional systems. The article presents the questionnaire results of students from Russian universities (N = 780 people) and colleges (N = 780 people) conducted in 2023; educational institutions are located in 41 subjects of the RF in all federal districts. The study revealed a relatively low level of trust of the Russian student youth to various government institutions, while the level of trust in regional authorities is lower than in fede ral ones. This is due to lack of awareness of young people about their activities. Additionally, most of the youth does not undertake a purposeful search and critical analysis of information, does not follow news about the work of authorities. It was also revealed that various network information spaces (social networks, regional digital Internet communities, official websites of government bodies and news portals) have a significant potential to increase institutional trust of students, since they cause the highest level of confidence.

   The article presents the results of exploring value and life-purpose orientations along with self-actualisation of studying youth. Two groups of students were identified according to the hierarchical structure of value orientations that have different features of life-purpose orientations and aspects of self-actualisation. The study was conducted on the basis of the State University of Social Sciences and Humanities. A large number of students of the humanities specialties participated in it. The analysis of values was performed with the methodology of value orientations proposed by M. Rokeach, the analysis of self-actualisation aspects – with a self-actualisation test suggested by L.Y. Gozman, M.V. Kroz and M.V. Latiskaya. The examination of life-purpose orientations was based on the test of life-purpose orientations developed by D. A. Leontiev. It was empirically proved that value orientations being a general meaningfulness of life are associated with its perception as a holistic process and with such features of self-actualisation as goals, beliefs, attitudes, and principles. Consequently, in the first group of students, behaviour and values depended on external evaluation and guidance, and due to the fact that attitudes to values are formed at a given time and in certain conditions, students being the subjects cannot control their life. The second group of students realises the phenomenon of self-actualisation as independence, the desire to follow their own values in life and behaviour, which are integrated into the personality structure, and the youth being the subjects can exercise this control.

   The article discusses the typology of significant connections for the indicator “Group-Oriented – Self-Reliant” (“ conformism – non-conformism”) (oriented at the group – independent) within the framework of studying statistical connections with the author’s method and correlation analysis. A total of 13 significant connections were identified, two of which are moderate (the maximum is 0.41), and the rest are very weak or weak in the range from 0.19 to 0.3. It means that in terms of linear mo dels they can be ignored. At the same time, among these 13 dependencies, two strong simplest nonlinear dependencies can be distinguished which are truly crucial for the research. The strong nonlinear dependency of the variable “ Ideosyncratic type” on the variable “Group-Oriented – Self-Reliant” (“conformism – non-conformism”) was considered in detail, as well as the connection of two significant dependencies of the variables “psychopathy” and “Hermit personality type” with the same variable for comparison. All the three dependencies are similar in their linear component and within the framework of the modern approach, popular among psychologists, should be treated as a meaningful result of the study. However, in reality, only one of them is interesting to the researcher. For visual representation, graphical comparisons of the three with each other and with their regression models built on the basis of linear correlation are considered. This indicates the non-linear nature of the dependencies of the indicator “Group-Oriented – Self-Reliant” (“ conformism – non-conformism”) in the conducted psychological study.

   The article studies peculiarities of the formation of socially mature students in the educational space. The following problems of this phenomenon may be mentioned: unplanned pregnancy, prematurity of a child, rejection of a child by one or two parents, aggravating heredity, postnatal disorders in physical or mental development, individual features of a child, negative impact of environment and people, lack of educational influence and social maladaptation, as well as other political, socio-economic, and ethnocultural specifics. In the research, attention is paid to procedural aspects of forming social maturity of students in the educational space. Besides, the article presents its model, main aspects of model creation and implementation are reflected. In addition, the author provides the purposes, objectives, factors, and psycho-pedagogical conditions of the considered occurrence. Some of the given factors of the research affecting a child in early preschool, school, and student age can prevent its favourable formation in any educational institution which happens in such a direction as the natural teaching and educational process. The specifics of the faculty are traced in disciplines and competencies that correspond to the characteristics of social maturity of students.

   The article is devoted to substantiate the need to clarify the definition of emotional intelligence (hereinafter referred to as EI). With consideration to the accumulated data on the neurophysiological foundations of EI and psychological trauma, as well as to the methods of psychotherapeutic work of various directions with human emotions and feelings, the introduction of a new element in the definition and structure of EI – emotional sensitivity (hereinafter referred to as ES) – is proposed and argued. ES is considered as the ability to focus attention on your emotions and feelings, be in contact with them, fully experience, be aware of them, immerse yourself into them, live deeply in safe conditions, distance yourself from them if necessary, and return to your experiences again. If the ability to realise one’s emotions and feelings is integrative, affective-cognitive in nature, then ES is the emotional basis of awareness of them, which is proposed to be distinguished separately as an independent and most important element of EI. In general, EI appears as an emotional-cognitive-personal education when the integrative essence of the concept, consisting in the unity of affective and cognitive processes of a person, is emphasised and reflected. In long-term psychotherapy, special and particular attention is given to the development of such an ability as ES. However, due to its important practical significance in people’s daily life, it should be showed in the definitions of EI and remembered in all forms of psychological work with a person.

   This study analyses and compares higher education in Germany, France, and Singapore. The authors highlight the similarities and differences between higher education systems in some countries of the European and Asia-Pacific regions. Its structure is described, with consideration to characteristics of each state, the place of these countries in the leading world rankings on the level of education is given (Education Index 2022 of the United Nations Development Programme and Human Development Report 2021–2022). A comparative analysis of the study duration, principles of building a higher education system was conducted. Also, the authors studied participation of employers (organisations and enterprises) and state in the process, along with issues of employment of graduates as a criterion for this method. The role of the relative independence of higher educational institutions in resolving admission issues was identified. The authors examined the stages of mastering programmes, the requirements for applicants when entering educational organisations, the types of degrees, and the procedure for awarding them. The system of dual (practice-oriented) training was explored as a basis for employment of graduates in France and Germany, the principles and goals of its functioning in the analysed states of the European region were clarified.