EN
The aim of the article is to study the potential of academic mobility of the teaching staff of higher education institutions as a factor of strengthening the human capital in the context of innovative development of higher education in Ukraine. Academic staff mobility of higher education institutions is viewed as a factor of integration of Ukraine into the European Higher Education Area and into the European Research Area as well and is regarded as a necessary prerequisite of its completing. According to the professional competence approach academic mobility is an individual educational path of subjects within educational process, built according to their personality potential, values and professional orientation, aspiring to continuous self-development and permanent professional growth. The concept of mobility is firmly related to the concept of human capital. Efficiency of mobility is proved to be reasonable from the point of view of knowledge transfer, continuing education of the staff at higher education institutions, development of innovations in economy, and academic mobility can be examined as a powerful factor of the development of the teaching staff as an academic human capital of higher education institutions. The basic forms of academic mobility of the teaching staff of higher education institutions are participation in common projects, teaching, scientific research, scientific internship and continuing education and it can take place on the basis of two types of the teaching staff training: long-term and short-term training. Expediency of investments in professional skills and abilities of the academic staff does not raise doubts; however there exist risks due to the factors, which lead to fictitious human capital. There exist a group of categories of obstacles preventing the teaching staff from being mobile, namely language knowledge, legal issues, administrative burden, personal situation, lack of funding and lack of motivation among personnel which influences the human capital of higher education institutions in a destructive way. Measures to remove obstacles to the teaching staff mobility should be considered. Encouragement and rewards for academic mobility of teaching and research staff should be regarded to optimize the mobility flows.