Cooperation between university and stakeholders in Lithuania: a case of future of educating lawenforcement officers

Abstract

The paper is dedicated to analysis of cooperation between University and stake holders in Lithuania. Based on critical analysis of references of research literature and documents, the perspective of governmental agencies on cooperation between University and stake holders with the special emphasis on educating law-enforcement officers in Lithuania is analysed. The general forms of cooperation are being analysed and also examples of good practices are presented (based on the case of educating professionals, especially, future law-enforcement officers, at Mykolas Romeris University). Methods of critical references analysis, documents ‘analysis and analysis of situations and cases are employed for the development of this paper. This study revealed that cooperation between universities and stake holders is necessary in the context of globalisation. Universities are expected to go beyond the traditional tasks of providing studies and get engaged in research. Moreover, the pressure from stake holders on universities becomes increasingly evident. Representatives from professional world require teachers, and especially, students, to be confident in applying knowledge into practical situations. Study revealed that the cooperation is only possible with sufficient facilities and resources, development of which is prompted by positive perspective of governmental agencies and programmes and a focused input. The number of forms of cooperation signifies the fact that there is no universal understanding or consensus on the concepts or terms; moreover, certain terms are being used for describing one forms, and other – for other forms. Nevertheless, the general agreement on the necessity for cooperation itself is universal. Please, be advised that a more extensive and analysis with the employment of more numerous examples from professional world was presented by these authors in the presentation at the International Conference in Danang, Vietnam, October, 2017, as an integral part of activities in the project Hub4Growth. In this paper, however, an aspect of the analysis is presented in greater detail in section 3.1, 3.2, though the concepts and the context are presented and analysed extensively in the 1, 2, 3 sections of the paper. The examples of good practices of cooperation between University and stake holders at Mykolas Romeris University revealed that the main orientation was toward innovation, and enabling students at practicing the skills that are necessary for professional career. The paper is developed as an integral activity while implementing the Erasmus+ project Hub4Growth (for the action Capacity Building in Higher Education (reference number 561978-EPP-1-2015-1-UK-EPPKA2-CBHE-JP)).