Re-contextualization of the Bologna process in Lithuania

Abstract

The paper explores the implementation of selected Bologna action lines in Lithuanian higher education institutions (HEIs). The study is carried out from an organizational perspective on national re-contextualization, drawing upon sociological institutionalism. The Bologna process is likely to be normatively accepted by institutions in the context of high uncertainty and change, but due to the local legal framework and organizational decoupling national re-contextualization takes place. We observe that the type of HEIs and the competitive horizons of disciplines found in these institutions may be strong mediating factors for the implementation of the Bologna action lines by HEIs.

Keywords:

• Bologna process
• national re-contextualization
• organizational decoupling
• quality assurance
• mobility
• disciplinary differences

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank the interviewees in the studied Lithuanian HEIs for their time and willingness to participate in this study. We appreciate the support of Vida Navickiene in collecting the data and commenting on the early versions of this article. Finally, our thanks go to the participants of the EAIR conference held in Vilnius, Lithuania, in August 2009, their insightful discussions, as well as the anonymous reviewers whose comments significantly contributed in developing this article.

Notes on contributors

Liudvika Leisyte is Professor of Higher Education at the Center for Higher Education (ZHB) at the Technical University of Dortmund, Germany. Since 2003 she has worked as a researcher at CHEPS, University of Twente and in 2008 she was awarded a postdoctoral fellow position at the Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies at Harvard University. Her research focuses on academic work, academic entrepreneurship and organizational transformation in the context of managerial reforms.

Rimantas Zelvys is Professor of Education at the Department of Education Sciences, Vilnius University, Lithuania. He is also Professor of Education at the Department of Education, Lithuanian University of Educational Sciences. Fields of interest: education policy and management, higher education reforms.

Lina Zenkiene is Associate Dean for Program Development at LCC International University, Klaipeda, Lithuania. She is carrying out her Ph.D. research at the Centre for Higher Education Governance Ghent (CHEGG), the Faculty for Political and Social Sciences of Ghent University. Her research focuses on the dynamics of quality-driven developments in the environment of transnational higher education.

Notes

1. “The competitive horizon of an individual academic … hinges on their perception of the location of their most serious competitor” (Hoffman, Välimaa, and Mira Huusko 2008, 231). It is understood in relation to the discipline of an individual academic – if the representatives of the discipline compete mainly nationally or also internationally and how strongly they are affected by this competition.

2. A Lithuanian credit means one working week or a total of 40 hours of lectures, seminars and independent work.

3. The degree-cycle descriptors were created in 2011 and the Lithuanian National Qualifications Framework was adopted in 2010 (Kaminskiene 2011).