Rector's meeting with students

On the afternoon of the first day of December, a meeting between university rector Juozas Augutis and students took place in VDU theater. The rector told the gathered students about the upcoming plans of the university, and the audience had the opportunity to ask their questions and have an open discussion.

The Rector told the students more about the cluster of Vytautas the Great, Klaipėda, Šiauliai and Education Universities. He explained that a cluster is not a merger of universities. For now, it is simply an agreement signed by universities to try to introduce cooperation between universities. J. Augutis confirmed that there will be no change of university status and no financial and similar obligations.

The cluster could be described as cooperation between universities, when a student could choose two universities when enrolling in the desired specialty, for example, Klaipėda and VMU. A student would study at Klaipėda University for two or one years, and then specialize at Vytautas the Great University. The rector emphasized that this model of university cooperation must be completely voluntary for all universities and partners. Also, this model does not require that all majors of the university be included, perhaps only those with few students. It aims to optimize the activities and programs of higher education institutions. The point is for universities to remain in the regions, it is believed that cooperation between universities could bring more benefits and students would have wider access to quality studies.

Another new idea to be mentioned during the meeting is the Lithuanian Erasmus program. This is an opportunity for students to try to study not necessarily in foreign universities, but also in different Lithuanian universities. The rector said that perhaps this idea will be implemented from the next spring semester or from September 2016.

At the end of the discussion, the rector emphasized that the opinion of the VMU community is very important to him, so students with questions or suggestions are encouraged to contact the rector, who promised that he would be happy to answer all questions.

The author of the photos is Jonas Petronis