Universities consolidation won’t necessarily ensure quality – Seimas’ speaker

“What the government is saying – that we have to ensure quality and that we have to ensure education – is a right thing to say, this is how universities should operate. However, merging them alone does not always guarantee quality. Therefore, there can be more versions than we see now,” Pranckietis told Žinių Radijas news radio on Wednesday.

He noted that the government’s proposals on what the network of higher schools should look is “a subject of discussions” for now.

Before taking the post at the Lithuanian parliament, Pranckietis headed the Agronomy Faculty at the Aleksandras Stulginskis University, a university that the government sees part of the Kaunas University together with the Kaunas University of Technology and the Vytautas Magnus University.

A prime minister-appointed working group announced on Tuesday that Lithuania should have two international-level universities and two technological universities after a planned reform of the current higher education system.

Vilnius University (VU) and a new university to be created in Kaunas are seen as international-level universities.

Mykolas Romeris University and the Lithuanian University of Educational Sciences would be merged into VU. Šiauliai University would also become part of VU.

The Kaunas University of Technology (KTU), Vytautas Magnus University (VDU), Aleksandras Stulginskis University and Lithuanian Sports University (LSU) would be merged to create a broad-scope university in the country’s second-biggest city.