Creation and development of the two-way system of the higher education in Lithuania
ENLithuanian education system, including higher education is compelled to reforms by the rapid changes in Lithuanian society, processes of European integration, market economy, creation of informational society, progress of science and technology. Higher education becomes universal, thus, there appears the need to have a flexible, the so-called two-way system of higher education, when, alongside with traditional university (academic) education, a nonuniversity (oriented to the acquisition of a profession) higher education appears. This system in Lithuania is created on the grounds of experience of European countries. The two-way system of education has to make studies cheaper and create possibilities for the youth to seek for higher education. On the other hand, it is necessary to reform university higher education as well.One of the most essential tasks in the reform of Lithuanian Higher Education is to create a clear and harmonious system of higher education institutions that allows, in addition to distinguishing higher education from the education of a lower level, such reforms in the system of higher education that, alongside with the sector of traditional university studies, the sector of non-university studies appears and creates the opportunity for more people to acquire a valuable higher education. The place of high education provided in Lithuania is not clear in the hierarchy of education levels in the international context. The two-way system of higher education - the system of colleges and universities - will have to solve these problems. It is necessary to avoid the danger that many presently existing Lithuanian high schools with no intellectual and material background may acquire the status of a college only on formal grounds. The creation of colleges is a progressive novelty that approximates the system of Lithuanian higher education to the Western models. In order to avoid the discredit of the idea it is important to give strict definitions of conditions for college creation and to determine high requirements for qualifications.
