‘Knowledge workers’ in the Baltic Sea Region: comparative assessment of innovative performance of the countries in the macro-region

LTReikšminiai žodžiai: Akademinė plėtra Baltijos šalyse; Baltijos jūros makroregionas; Baltijos šalių akademiškumo plėtotė; Baltijos šalys kaip Europos Sąjungos makro-regionas; Emigracija; Vietos politika; Žmogiškieji ištekliai; Žmogiškojo potencialo plėtotės strategijos ir politika vietiniu lygmeniu; Academic development in the Baltic countries; Baltic Sea macro-region; Baltic Sea macro-region of the European Union; Emigration; European Union; Human resource; Local policies; Strategies for human resource and local policies; Europos Sąjunga (European Union).

ENThe article studies the problems of human resources stemming from increased mobility, and the emergence of new aspects of migration processes. A comparative analysis of the connection between academic development in the context of university (and the science system) and the process of labour migration taking place in Poland, Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia was carried out. The article examines the limits of the model through European territorial migration process and concludes that the huge migration of high-skilled labour (called the “knowledge workers”) has had a very negative impact on the innovative and academic potential of Poland, Lithuania, Latvia and a negative impact in Estonia. In the final section, the article examines increase in the requirements for competence in the Baltic Sea macroregion of the European Union and Estonia’s university reform of 2013–2016 as an illustrative experiment to (un)resolved problems. The first results of the reform in higher education indicated that it was ineffective—for students, the good ideas of the reform proved to be a lost experiment and the mobility of knowledge workers, as the future academic resource in homeland, turned from Estonia to larger Europe, especially to Finland and the UK. [From the publication]