The Future of Higher Education in Lithuania

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1 The Future of Higher Education in Lithuania 22 October 2013

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3 Debate on The Future of Higher Education in Lithuania Vilnius, 22 October 2013, 15:00-18:00 National Open Access Scholarly Communication and Information Centre AGENDA 15:00 15:10 Welcome Valdas Adamkus, Former President of Lithuania Rémy Jacob, Dean, EIB Institute 15:10 15:45 Round table discussion Moderator Panellists Margarita Starkevičiūtė, Researcher, Vilnius University Julie Fionda, Policy Officer, European Commission Aurimas M. Juozaitis, Associate Professor, Lithuanian University of Educational Sciences Saulė Mačiukaitė-Žvinienė, Head of the Higher Education Policy Analysis Unit, Research and Higher Education Monitoring and Analysis Centre Jozef Ritzen, Honorary Professor, Maastricht University Giedrius Viliūnas, Vice Rector, Mykolas Romeris University 15:45 17:45 Debate 17:45 18:00 Concluding remarks 18:00 19:00 Networking cocktail

4 Welcome remarks Valdas Adamkus Former President of Lithuania, elected twice (in 1998 and 2004); active opinion leader in political, social and environmental life of Lithuania and internationally. The former President has been actively promoting the idea of rapid modernisation of Lithuania and has so far worked consistently towards its implementation. Among the dozens of awards and honorary doctorates granted to the former President by universities and non-governmental organisations in the region and worldwide, Valdas Adamkus has been conferred the title of UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador for the Construction of Knowledge Societies. Rémy Jacob is a Director General at the European Investment Bank and the Dean of the EIB Institute. Born in France in 1950, he studied business and management at the École Supérieure de Commerce et d Administration des Entreprises de Dijon, France. He joined the Finance Directorate of the European Investment Bank in During his 39-year career at the EIB, he has held a series of senior positions including four years as Director of Information Technology, five years as Director of General Affairs, five years as Deputy Secretary General, and five years as Director General of the Strategy and Corporate Centre. In 1992 he contributed to the creation of the London-based European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD). From 2000 to 2012 Rémy Jacob was a member of the Board of the European Investment Fund, the venture capital and guarantee arm of the EIB Group. He is presently a member of the Board of the non-governmental organisation ADA-Appui au Développement Autonome, which specialises in poverty reduction and microfinance.

5 Moderator Margarita Starkevičiūtė is doing research work at Vilnius University, where she was awarded a PhD for her thesis on the Strategy of Long-Term Economic Growth in Transition and its Implementation in Lithuania, which focused on the development of an economy in transition, the determinants and sources of long-term economic growth and government economic policy strategy to facilitate the growth of the economy. She was a Member of the European Parliament ( ) and sat on the Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee, the Budget Committee and the Budget Control Committee, as well as being a member of the Delegations for Relations with Japan, Australia and New Zealand, and Iran. Prior to her stint at the Parliament she was an Associate Professor at Vilnius University s International Business School, where her research focused on EU economic policy, growth and financial markets, global governance and external economic relations. Together with other colleagues, she helped launch Lithuania s financial market and was Head of the Market Analysis division at the National Stock Exchange of Lithuania and the Central Securities Depository. She also worked as chief economist in various ministries. Margarita Starkeviciute won a Woman of the Year award (1996) for her public role during the period of economic reform in Lithuania and is at present Chairwoman of Vilnius City Council s Public Commission for Culture (civic society). She is author of a number of books and papers on economic growth, financial markets, global governance and EU policy.

6 Panellists Julie Fionda is a British official who has been working at the European Commission since She has a background in economics and business studies and is currently a policy officer with responsibility for the EU agenda for the modernisation of higher education. She also works on initiatives linked to graduate employability and the higher education labour market and on the development of a European student loan guarantee Erasmus Master. Earlier roles in the European Commission included the negotiation and management of European Social Fund programmes and cooperation between Member States in the framework of peer learning and benchmarking. Prior to joining the European Commission, Julie worked in the public sector in the United Kingdom on regional development and social inclusion initiatives, having begun her career in the education sector, working on corporate development and planning. Aurimas M. Juozaitis is an associate professor at the Lithuanian University of Educational Sciences (Vilnius), independent consultant on management and education, ICF (International Coach Federation) certified coach, ACC (Associate Certified Coach). Dr Juozaitis has consultancy and training experience not only in Lithuania, but also in Sweden, Russia, Latvia, Estonia, Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Moldova, Ireland and Hungary. He also has many years of management experience: from 1990 to 1992 he was Lithuania s Deputy Minister for Culture and Education and from 1992 to 2000 he ran the Teachers and School Heads In- Service Training Centre at Vilnius Pedagogical University. For many years he has also been running various short and long-term project groups. Dr Juozaitis has written 15 books on adult education theory and methodology and also numerous articles on managerial and educational issues. Since 2009 he has been teaching at Lithuania s University of Educational Sciences on the courses The Basics of Coaching (for undergraduate students) and Coaching and Mentoring (for master s students). Saulė Mačiukaitė-Žvinienė is the Head of the Higher Education Policy Analysis Unit at the Research and Higher Education Monitoring and Analysis Centre. She received her doctoral degree in social sciences in She is also a visiting lecturer and a researcher at Mykolas Romeris University and Vilnius University s International Business School. She is the author of numerous scientific articles and books on evidence-based policy and societal participation, co-author of various national reports for the European Commission and the United Nations, a national correspondent of Res AgorA and a senior researcher under the EU s 7th Framework Programme.

7 Panellists Jozef Ritzen a Dutch national, is an honorary professor at Maastricht University, senior adviser to the Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA) in Bonn, a member of the International Advisory Board of RANEPA (Moscow) and KAU (Jeddah), adviser to several ministers of education, Chair and Founder of Empower European Universities and Initiator of the Vibrant Europe Forum, which seeks to contribute to the European Parliamentary Elections in areas such as innovation, higher education, research, the labour market, greening and income (in) equality policy. Prof. Ritzen was President of Maastricht University from February 2003 until January 2011, during which time the university grew to become one of the leading international teaching research universities, with almost half of its students coming from abroad and problem-based learning as the style of education. Before that he was Vice- President of the World Bank s Development Economics Department from August 1999, becoming Vice-President of the World Bank s Human Development Network in July 2001, having joined the Bank as Special Adviser to the Human Development Network in September Prior to going to the Bank, he was Minister of Education, Culture and Science in the Netherlands, one of the longest-serving education ministers in the world. During his term of office, he enacted a series of major reforms throughout the Dutch education system. He has also made significant contributions to agencies such as UNESCO and the OECD, especially in the field of education and social cohesion. Prior to being appointed a minister in 1989, Prof. Ritzen held academic appointments at Nijmegen and Erasmus Universities in the Netherlands, the University of California- Berkeley and the Robert M. La Follette Institute of Public Affairs at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in the United States. He has written or co-authored eleven books. Many articles written or co-authored by him have been published in the fields of education, economics, public finance, labour markets and development economics. Giedrius Viliūnas is currently Vice-Rector for Education and a professor at Mykolas Romeris University, Lithuania. Previously, he was head of the Department of Research Policy at the Research Council of Lithuania and served as a secretary at the Ministry of Education and Science. For more than 20 years he has been active as a university teacher and researcher in literary scholarship.

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