Policy of higher education quality assurance: opportunities and barriers to the development of liberal education in Lithuania

Abstract

In the European and Bologna process documents the main aim of higher education (HE) is the creation of an advanced, competitive and economically strong Europe. Educated people who are able to create personal and career professional success are especially important for seeking this aim. Liberal education is widely understood as intellectual and cognitive formation, therefore it is an essential condition to ensure the development of educated and successful individuals. But the base of liberal education development is the policy of quality assurance (QA) in the HE which at the same time is a priority and a source of trust for European HE. The empirical results of this research shows that problems of policy of the HE QA in Lithuania are related to the lack of focus on successfulness of the personal life and motivational incentives for students, focus on development of the general and entrepreneurial competences, ambition of the state to control students’ flows, lack of rational and systematic planning of the state and problems concerned forecasting of changes in the labour market, and different perception of the concept of quality by stakeholders. The fact that there are problems and shortcomings in the field of policy of HE QA, there is a lack of research involving liberal education in conjunction with the HE QA – poses a risk for liberal education development and for the creation of an advanced competitive and economically strong Europe.