Klaipēdas Universitātes Pedagoģijas fakultātes attīstība pēc Lietuvas neatkarības atjaunošanas (1990-2004)

ENAnalyzing the historical development and challenges wxperienced by the Klaipėda University Faculty of Pedagogy after the restoration of independence of Lithuania in 1990, the article examines the processes of structural and academic changes in a Lithuanian higher education institution. The case of the Klaipėda University Faculty of Pedagogy was chosen because of its atypical historical, geopolitical and academic prerequisites. This study discovers the peculiarities of a regional higher education institution by seeking answers to the following questions: 1) What challenges the Faculty of Pedagogy, which specializes in the training of pedagogues and the development of educational sciences, faced at the time period from 1990 to 2004? 2) How have the changes at the Faculty of Pedagogy reflected the general processes of transformation of higher education in Lithuania? The sources of the study were documents, academic literature and an empirical method– survey. The study revealed the challenges of free competition and the new labor market in the sphere of higher education: restructuring of the institutions, development of new study programs, new terminology of educational sciences, the need to adapt to a large workload, new requirements regarding the professional competence of professors, democratization of relations among academic staff and students. [From the publication]