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Makale Özeti:
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Since May of 1999, 46 European countries have been engaged in reconstructing their
higher education systems to bring about a greater degree of “convergence,” i.e. a move
toward common reference points and operating procedures to create a European Higher
Education Area.
Education has always played an important role in the development of Lithuania, with
long and strong traditions as a country with highly educated scientists and cutting-edge
research in various fields. In April 2009, the Seimas passed a new Law on Science and
Studies, which provides for a major reform of higher education. In recent years there has
been an increasing focus on the role universities play in the economy and impact they
make in promoting innovation and raising international competitiveness. But until
recently there has been a prescriptive view of university-business interactions with a
narrow focus on technology transfer. Although technology transfer may be important, it
is also necessary to focus on the more diverse and varied impacts of business-university
knowledge exchange relations.
Thus, I discuss changes in higher education that were implemented in Lithuania during
the period of 1992-2012, i. e. Student baskets, notorious optimization of university
network in Lithuania, the development of Lithuanian science valleys, etc. In my survey I
rely upon an IHEP (Institute for Higher Education Policy) expert Cliff Adelman’s idea that
the Bologna Process is an analogue to the macroeconomic theory of convergence, the
ways in which nations move from different stages of development to a more-or-less
common platform of performance. Macroeconomic historians have demonstrated timeand-again:
nations that learn from other nations grow; those that do not learn do not.
Ultimately, I arrive at a conclusion that reforms are essential and indispensable but
answer the purpose only when higher quality in education is achieved.
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