On 1 of December 2017, ISM University of Management and Economics organized a conference to discuss quality and relevance of higher education in Lithuania. Among invited international and local guests Ms. Aurelija Valeikienė, Deputy Director of SKVC featured. She called to face challenges in strategic leadership, increase professionalism of higher education management and improve pedagogy, in order to create the desired change in quality, emphasising, that it is people who are to deliver in the first place, and investment is needed here. She also emphasised that higher education institutions in the first place are responsible for their quality.
Dr Ivo Matser, CEO of ISM University of Management and Economics, when opening the event, invited to discuss the real reasons and aims for higher education reform in Lithuania and stated that by this discussion the university contributes to the quality of debates. The keynote presentation on global trends in quality assurance was given by Ms Susanna Karakhanyan, President of INQAAHE. Dr Boguslavas Gruževskis, Head of the Institute of Labour Market Research of Lithuanian Social Research Centre analysed relevance of higher education from the labour market and economic development perspective, and underscored importance of ethics and social cohesion. Mr Timothy S. Mescon, Executive Vice President of AACSB International (USA) talked about the role of peer recognition and learning communities in academia.
In the discussion part, moderated by dr Alfredas Chmieliauskas (Rector of ISM University of Management and Economics), different perspectives were offered by dr Virginija Būdienė (Director of Vilnius Institute for Policy Analysis and former Vice-Minister for Education), dr Eugenijus Butkus (Adviser to the Minister of Education and Science of the Republic of Lithuania), Ms Daina Kleponė (Director of “Enterprise Lithuania”), Professor Emeritus Antanas Kulakauskas (former Vytautas Magnus University), dr Maurits van Rooijen (Chief Academic Officer of Global University Systems, The Netherlands), Ms Aurelija Valeikienė, Deputy Director of Centre for Quality Assessment in Higher Education (SKVC).
The event gathered university rectors, directors of colleges of higher education, other administrators and lecturers of HEIs, students, also representatives of public sector organizations.
The programme is here.
