Abstract:
The article considers the role of elective courses in professional development of
students of economics. Modern European education is developing on the principles of
democratization and humanization, where democratization implies the involvement of all
agents/participants of the education process into forming its content and solving numerous
related problems. Moreover, in order to be competitive in global labour market, modern
specialists must develop such features as mobility, cultural, language and religious
empathy, professionalism, commitment to the human virtues, etc. The content of education
expressed in the curriculum is now not a rigid unity. Offering elective courses, university
curricula can be easily modified to the students’ needs and aspirations. The analysis of the
curricula of the economic faculties at some leading European universities has showed a
great amount of elective courses mainly in general subjects such as Psychology, Pedagogy,
Philosophy, History, Politology, Social Science, etc. These courses make up approximately
10 % of the total study load and are meant to realize interdisciplinary links, deepen
students’ understanding of economic phenomena and develop analytical and strategic thinking.
On the one hand, by choosing elective courses students are more agitated in learning, more
interested and motivated. On the other hand, universities think harder over the supply of
subjects and their content. At the same time, it increases lecturers’ motivation to consider new
approaches, update information, and on the whole do their best to make their subjects appealing
to students. The research has proved that elective courses realize an important role in
students’ professional and personal development by integrating knowledge of many subjects,
through their participation in tailoring the curricula and enriching their professional portfolio.
