Higher education reform in Lithuania: achievements, fails and further trends

Rimantas Vaitkus,

1’st Deputy Chancellor of the

Government of Lithuaniarimantas.vaitkus@smm.lt;

Higher education of Lithuania at a glance

• Lithuania has 3 mln. inhabitants;• The oldest higher education institution in Lithuania is

Vilnius University, established in 1579.• Number of universities: 14 state; 8 private• Number of colleges: 13 state, 11 private• Total number of students – 148,5 thousand (2014).

Regulations by the Constitution of Lithuania

• 40 article. – Schools of higher education shall be granted autonomy.

• 41 article. – Higher education shall be accessible to everyone

according to his individual abilities. – Citizens who are good at their studies shall be guaranteed

education at State schools of higher education free of charge.

• 42 article. – Culture, science and research, and teaching shall be free.

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Political agreement of parties 2007

• Finances per student consist from fixed fee part and state compensation. Experiment with “student basket” per some study programs;

• Effective loan system;• Autonomy for HEI: rights for study programs,

property right. Agreements between state and HEI;• Autonomy and accountability, external evaluation.

Finances for achievements. Councils;• Ombudsmen for HE;• Quality assessment and assurance. Implementation of

Bergen Communique (2005).• Increase in financing of R&D. Goal: to achieve the

average of EU by 2012. Financing Councils: Humanities and Sciences;

• Better cooperation of HEI and business.

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Demographic situation of Lithuania

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Future students in 2020

Dynamics of student number in Lithuania

Data provided by State Department of Statistics, Lithuania

Directions of the reform of HE (2009)

• New legal status of HE – public institutions (not budget).

• Council – the main governing board. It is be external: 5 from inside HEI (from which – 3 by Senate, 1- student, 1- representing students) + 6 from outside (till 2012 selected by the Council accountable to the Minister).

• Rector – appointed by Council.• New model financing: “student basket”, private schools

financing (till 2012).• Ombudsmen for HE.• Legal implementation of ECTS.• Requirements for quality assurance and assessment.

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Expected results of reform

• Model “money follows student” should increase competition (should it improve the quality?)

• Stronger influence of the Ministry (trough the Council)

• Possible merger of universities (in fact – 2 merged);

• More rights for communities of universities (being public institution – less direct regulation by state)

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Along with the world wide shift toward mass higher education, debate around “who pays” for this increase in participation has similarly escalated.

Equally important to the funding debate is the question of “how much” funding is sufficient to support quality education.

In: Funding of Higher Education: A Question Who Pays, ed. B. Longden, K.-L. Harris, p. 8, (2007).

Funding of higher education institutions of Lithuania

• Scheme implemented from 2001.• Was based on performance: student numbers, research

activities;• Funding for research was based on number of papers

(ISI data), patents, contracts with industry. Necessary data were provided by Lithuanian Science Council;

• Each higher education institution were granted by funds for maintainance of buildings and administration (according to the formula).

• Investments to HEI should be granted separatelly.

Funding allocations for Vilnius University

Data in mln. Litas

Dynamics of the number of publications of Lithuania

Number of publications

765 855

12211357

1662

2456

29652697

2328 2393

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2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011

Source: Thomson Reuters Essential Science Indicators, 2012

Funding of studies of higher education institutions of Lithuania before 2009

• Government defined the total number of state financed places based on suggestions of HEIs;

• Minister defined number of students per each institution and the field of study. More than 60 fields were financed;

• Higher education institution received money basing on the number of studying students in state financed places;

• Funds to the institution were granted according to the number of particular student number per field and study price (17 groups). Due to the lack of money state never granted the defined price (only around 40-50 percent).

• Half of state financed students were obliged to pay fee (around 300 € per year). It was rotation each semester. State Study Fund provided loan to cover the fee.

• Higher education institutions could admit extra number of students (except full-time students). Students were obliged to pay fee according to the agreement with the higher education institution. Usually it was lower than actual study price calculated by state;

• Constitutional Court of Lithuania explained (2008) that HEIs can admit fee students without boundaries (including full-time students)

Objectives to the funding reform of HEI (Reform initially started in 2009)

• Growing number of students: quality versus quantity. How much funding is sufficient?

• Only best students can be funded by state. Our Constitution says: “Higher education is free of charge for best students” (Art. 41, p. 3);

• Funding “per student” should increase competition among higher education isntitutions;

• Funding per broad field of study rather then per programme should increase competition among programmes;

• Weak institutions can be forced to merge;• Overall Lithuanian higher education institutions should become

more competitive in European higher education area;• Funding of the research activities should be fully based on

performance (without remarkable changes from previous funding scheme).

Funding reform from 2009

• Government defines total number of students financed by state per number of fields of studies. Initially (2009) it was 6 fields: social sciences, humanities, arts, biomedical sciences, physical sciences and mathematics; technological sciences;

• There is no number of students set for institution and study programme. For example: field of biomedical sciences includes: medicine, veterinary, biology, agronomy, forestry, dentistry, physical training, etc. Social sciences include: law, economics, psychology, sociology, social work, etc

• State finance is granted only for best graduates of secondary school;

• Single admission system was used for delivering of number of state financed places;

• Extra admitted students are obliged to pay fee equal to the study price.

State finance places of universities in Lithuania

11019

9680 96808975

7581

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4000

6000

8000

10000

12000

2009 2010 2011 2012 2013

Source: Ministry of Education and Science, 2013

Fees in EUR, p.p.p.

Source: Eurydice, 2011

“Student baskets” and fee students per university,2012 and 2013 admission

Data from Central Admission Office LAMA BPO, 2013

state

state

fee

fee

70 study programmes did not attract students

“Student baskets” of 2 universities

222

143

9481

126141

64 7257

97

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100

150

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2009 2010 2011 2012 2013

ASU LSU

Source: LAMA BPO, MOSTA, 2013

Main risks from the reform

• Universities are seeking for students (students means money);

• Some students are not able to study due to bad results at secondary school, but they can be admitted;

• Universities try to use all means of advertising studies;

• Big number of narrow programmes (e.g: lawyer of high tech) or attractive names: e.g. “management of information” (but not “librarian studies”);

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Percentage of graduates of the sec. school that applied for studies at HEI

65 64,369,4

66,2 64,7 66

76 73,8 72

63

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70

80

2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012

Minimal points (from 10) for state financed (blue) and fee students (red)

Lowest in colleges state fin. – 1,94, fee – 0,35 Lowest in universities state – 2,26, fee – 0,45

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Study price (in €) per field of study, 2014

Nb. Field of study Bachelor Master Ph. D.

1.Humanities (except phylology), social sciences (except psychology)

1128 2118 8188

2. Mathematics, sports, rehabilitation, nursery 1521 2511 8188

3. Phylology 1852 2842 8188

4.Architecture, education, physical sciences, technological sciences, psychology, translation studies

2214 3204 8188

5. Medicine, veterinary 2648 3639 8188

6. Arts, theatre, media studies, cinema 3217 4207 8188

7. Musics, pilots 5264 6254 8188

Approved by the Minister, 2013

Admission of students per field of study,2014

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Positive results of the reform

• Transparent scheme of distribution of funds;• Based on student’s choice;• Rotation between fee students and state financed students (after 1

year of studies);• Stronger institutions are getting more funds;• Universities seek for new study programmes, new content, pay

more attention for the pre-admission activities (fairs, cooperation with schools, etc.);

• More attention for the reputation of the institution;• 2 universities have merged.

Negative results from the reform 2009

• Students are divided: some do not pay, some pay all study price;• HEI loose money if student fail: money or quality?;• Competition among institutions sometimes takes wild character:

more attention to the rankings, media advertising;• External evaluation (if not positive case) is disputed even in the

court;• Duplication of study programmes (e.g. 5 institutions now offer

biochemistry, which has been studied only at 1 several years ago);• Student choice depends not only on strong institution but rather on

the city. Regional institutions were strongly affected.• Competition in such broad areas (e.g. agronomy versus medicine)

deregulates the number of graduates and does not help to prepare graduates of some particular fields.

Trends to improve the law on HE (2015)

• Agreements between universities and state:– Fields of studies;– Admission requirements;– Stability for financing;

• More precise admission for some fields;• More rights for universities to manage

property;

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Number of fields of studies for „competition“

Source: Ministry of Education and Science, 2013

Our expectations from new law on HE

• Agreements will focus universities to have some profiles.

• Benchmarking of research performance (2015) indicated strong and weak fields of universities;

• Negotiations and discussions will take time, but we are patient;

• Merger of more universities is possible: we hope on „win – win“ situation;

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