The article discusses theoretical preconditions of added value of internationalized studies for students' knowledge and skills development in the area of professional training within the system of higher education. The premise is formulated that the value and quality of academic exchange is possible to assess grounding on the research into…

This paper starts from the premise that using learning outcomes to organise the curriculum has been demonstrated to be beneficial to both students and teachers. Accepting, however, that there are legitimate concerns over the extent to which the use of learning outcomes can inhibit originality and critical thinking of students, this paper uses the…

The article presents the findings of the research into professional development needs of study programme managers at four Lithuanian higher education schools (two universities and two colleges) and a revised methodology for research into study programme managers professional development needs in the didactical domain of teacher qualification…

The article analyses the issue of indefiniteness of higher education quality management as a specific area of quality management. It analyses the participation of staff in the development of quality culture. It investigates the perceptions of university and college staff of their responsibilities to participate in quality management. On the basis…

Higher education quality improvement is a constant and continuous university activity and its implementation should be given a priority. This article analyses the most important tasks set at three Lithuanian universities seeking to improve higher education quality: the improvement of higher education quality assurance system, teacher professional…

The article examines harmonization of higher education as an prerequisite of improvement of study quality in Lithuania. It overviews the development of higher education and criteria of university and higher non-university study programmes. An assumption is made that higher university and higher non-university studies are poorly harmonized and the…

The article presents the analysis of higher education internationalization, its conceptions and forms of manifestation. It investigates the ways and means of higher education internationalization, the diversity of higher school internationalization motives, the issues of higher education internationalization quality assessment, presenting an…

This paper presents a quantitative analysis of information literacy competencies level within nine universities of Lithuania. The empirical research was carried out in 2005 with a research sample of 700 respondents. Comparative analysis of the data between full-time and extramural study mode students revealed differences in the level of…

A number of small countries face similar problems while organising external assessment of higher education institutions: how to select proper experts, how to prepare them and maintain? How to avoid bias or interest conflict between experts who evaluate the institution and the institution being evaluated? How to reduce the financial costs of…

The history of (external) quality assurance schemes in European higher education since ca. 1980 is sketched in this article. The three pioneering countries in Western Europe are taken as models of different developments and contrasted with the rise of accreditation in Central and Eastern Europe after 1989. Using theoretical insights, the dynamics…

The article analyses the system of institutional quality assessment at universities and lays foundation to its functional, morphological and processual parameters. It also presents the concept of the system and discusses the distribution of systems into groups, defines information, accountability, improvement and benchmarking functions of higher…

This paper focuses on the validity of the research conducted under the leading paradigm in the evaluation of teaching in higher education. Messick's framework on validity is used to identify the strengths and limitations of the research, mostly centered on the study of student ratings of instruction. Critical issues that need to be addressed by…

Study outcomes are an immensely important parameter of higher education quality. They reflect the relationship between studies and labour market needs; determine the framework and internal logics of study programme curriculum: sequence of study objectives, their particularity, study content, methods, student achievement assessment criteria and…

The interest to improve the quality of teaching in higher education has led to the involvement of a group of faculty members at the University of Granada Faculty of Education in an Action-Research (A-R) experience titled "Towards a model of collaborative lecture throughout the analysis of their educational tasks." This has been an…

The article presents the generalised findings of the research into the Lithuanian college graduates' viewpoint towards the realisation of non-university study programmes. The graduates' opinion research revealed their viewpoint towards: 1) the curriculum of the study programme, 2) the subject content and its teaching quality, 3) practical training…