The modern paradigm of quality assurance in higher education includes as one of the components the accreditation of educational programs carried out by the National Agency for Quality Assurance in Higher Education. Among the participants in the accreditation process, the key role of the higher education institution is played by the guarantor of the educational program, who performs important organizational and communicative functions, as well as coordinates the educational activities of the program. To date, all these aspects are not regulated at the level of legislation, the tasks of the guarantor and the characteristics that allow to perform the relevant functionality, as well as the ability of higher education institution to determine the requirements for guarantors and their powers.

                 Thus, the aim of the article has become the need to clarify the demographic and qualification characteristics of the guarantors for Ukrainian higher education institutions, their legal nature in terms of involvement in internal quality assurance. Its achievement, in addition to solving a specific scientific problem, will outline further prospects for researching the place and role of the guarantor in the formation of the educationalprogram, developing scientifically motivated recommendations for higher education institutions to create and improve local regulations that would structure the guarantor of the educational program.

                 The main results of the article are: the main parameters that comprehensively characterize the guarantor of the educational program were investigated; the legal aspects of the guarantor’s activity are singled out taking into account the Ukrainian legislation and the current requirements for ensuring the quality of education; age, gender, qualification (including those related to the position, academic degree, academic title) characteristics of the guarantor of the educational program are clarified, that allow to outline a certain “portrait of the educational program guarantor”.

                 The study showed that the “guarantor’s portrait” generally corresponds to the main characteristics of the research and teaching staff, in terms of age, gender, position, degree and academic title: it can be a woman or a man of working age with a degree, by title – mostly Associate Professor, ex officio – Head of the Department. As for the legal nature of the guarantor, it is important to note that this is not a separate position, but a higher education institution within the autonomy may endow it with powers, rights and certain functional responsibilities in terms of ensuring the quality of education.