Inefficiencies take higher education to breaking point

Xinhua 21 November 2015

A flawed higher education system has been an issue in Lithuania for many years, but the recent data and a growing discontent with inefficiencies in the higher education system among prominent education specialists, economists, students and the heads of the state, suggests it has reached a breaking point, reports Xinhua.

Dalia Grybauskaite, president of Lithuania, has recently prepared the amendments of the Law of Science and Studies, which are aimed at raising the threshold for those applying to study at Lithuanian universities. Grybauskaite said the country needed properly educated people, not a higher number of diplomas. "Today we have a situation, when the higher education is being devalued," said the president earlier this month after a meeting with representatives of academic society, business and student organisations.

There are 14.5 universities and colleges per million residents in Lithuania, a small Baltic country with a population of less than 3 million, according to the most recent data from MOSTA, Lithuania's Research and Higher Education Monitoring and Analysis Centre. The average number in Europe is 4.6. Inefficiency in the higher education system has also been reflected in the labour market with employers competing for every student with programming and engineering skills, while those with degrees in social sciences and humanities face the risk of being unemployed.
Full report on the Global Post site

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