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Center for Higher Education

Changing University in Lithuania

The Managerial University and Changing Academic Work in Lithuania

Project Description

European higher education institutions have undergone significant transformation in the past decades due to the New Public Management inspired governmental policies and reforms. These policies geared towards increasing efficiency and effectiveness of universities in the 1990s, starting with the UK and gradually spreading in the continental Europe, have strengthened managerial control within universities in order to ensure accountability to the increasing variety of stakeholders. An indirect effect of these processes might be the gender differentiation of academic roles at universities.

The purpose of this project is to understand the extent of change in academic work and working conditions across disciplines and universities. In doing so, the main focus will be on the influence of university managerialism on academic work of female and male academics in Lithuania. The study uses a mixed methods design. First, interviews will be carried out with human resources officers from Lithuanian universities. Further, a cross-sectional online survey will be conducted among academics from Lithuanian universities across all disciplines. The results of the study will be presented to the participating universities, in the higher education studies conferences as well as published in scientific journals.

Project Period

9/2016 – 8/2017

Project Team

Principal investigator
Prof. Dr. Liudvika Leišytė

Project staff
Sude Pekşen