The Role of universities in the knowledge-based society in Lithuania

ENThis chapter focuses on the question of how the Lithuanian higher education sector contributes to research, development, and innovation in Lithuania. The Lithuanian case is interesting in two regards: On the one hand, the country has been undergoing rapid economic, political, and societal transformation after restoration of independence from the Soviet Union in the early 1990s and is currently one of the fastest-growing economies in the European Union. On the other hand, the country faces negative demographic trends and rapidly decreasing student numbers, which has led to increasing competition between higher education institutions and a consolidation of the higher education sector in the past years. The chapter provides an overview of policies and strategies as well as an evaluation of the innovation capacity of Lithuania, which includes comparisons with the two other Baltic States, Estonia and Latvia, and a positioning in the European Union context. We then present the key characteristics of the Lithuanian higher education system and discuss its contribution to research, development, and innovation and the so-called learning society in the country. Keywords: Academic profession, European Union, Innovation, Development Research-development-innovation, Lithuania. [From the publication]

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