Concept of Competence in the International and National Educational Contexts

This paper explores the problem of harmonization of educational thesaurus which requires urgent attention in the process of creating European Higher Education Area and developing of common educational standards. All policy documents, the reports of the European Council and guidliances contain key educational terms that require proper understanding and interpretation in both the member states and in countries that are at the stage of European integration. The paper also reviews the issue of the coordination of international educational thesaurus with the national one, what raises the question if it is possible to unify educational terminology in Europe and beyond? Besides, the authors make an overview of the genesis of the competence movement in the EU, the USA, Australia and Ukraine to evaluate this question. It has become evident that there is still considerable misunderstanding of the integrated approach to concepts of competence and competency. These definitions are found to be too broad, abstract and general and not unified for higher education both on international and national levels.