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Strategy and policy
Reform Support

Ensuring Quality Vocational and Higher Education in Lithuania

Supporting reforms to improve the quality of education and training systems and ensure equal access to it

Funding Programme
Year
  • 2023

Ensuring Quality Vocational and Higher Education in Lithuania

The European Commission has supported the Lithuanian Ministry of Education, Science and Sports on policies to enhance the quality and labour market relevance of higher education and vocational education and training (VET). The project, which  was implemented by the OECD, in co-operation with the European Commission and the Lithuanian authorities, has delivered recommendations and a roadmap for the Lithuanian authorities to help them: a) improve the external evaluation and quality assurance systems for higher education and VET; b) create a wider policy eco-system for pedagogical enhancement and innovation; and c) recalibrate broader “framework” policies with a substantial influence on the quality and relevance of higher education and VET.

Context

In recent years, Lithuania has initiated several reforms in higher education and VET to tackle pressing demographic challenges and improve the quality and labour-market relevance of teaching and learning in these sectors. Building on these reforms, Lithuania’s Ministry of Education, Science and Sports identified a need to improve the coherence, effectiveness and efficiency of the external evaluation and quality assurance systems for higher education and VET. Lithuania thus requested support from the European Commission, through the Technical Support Instrument, to identify appropriate policy responses to enhance the quality and relevance of teaching and learning in both sectors.

As such, the project aligns with the EU’s European Strategy for Universities, which seeks to further develop a European Quality Assurance and Recognition System, as well as with the EU’s Council Recommendation on vocational education and training (VET) for sustainable competitiveness, social fairness and resilience, which urges EU member states to take actions to ensure that VET is underpinned by a culture of quality assurance.

Support delivered

As part of this project, the OECD has examined Lithuania’s approach to assuring and enhancing the quality and relevance of higher education and VET. Specific attention was paid to the policies and practices of the Centre for Quality Assurance in Higher Education (SKVC) and the Qualifications and Vocational Education and Training Development Centre (KPMPC) as the two agencies responsible for external quality assurance in higher education and VET. The OECD also reviewed policies and practices for ensuring quality in higher education and VET in nine comparator systems of relevance to Lithuania (i.e. Austria, Croatia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Ireland, the Netherlands, Norway and Scotland (United Kingdom)). Based on this analysis, the OECD has developed recommendations and a roadmap for the Lithuanian authorities, which were published in the report Ensuring Quality Vocational and Higher Education in Lithuania.

Results achieved

The project has helped the Lithuanian Government, the quality assurance agencies SKVC and KPMPC, and the education sector more broadly to gain a better understanding of policies that can help improve the quality and relevance of higher education and VET. Through national roundtables and international peer learning, organised both in Lithuania and online, the project has also fostered a national dialogue among policymakers, educators and students from the VET and higher education sectors in Lithuania. As such, the project has helped Lithuania to build bridges at both the practice and policy level between the two sectors, laying the foundation for greater system-level collaboration.

Several of the project’s recommendations have also directly influenced the new government programme's implementation plan, developed by the Lithuanian Government in early 2025. It has also influenced the new external quality assurance framework for higher education, developed by SKVC as part of a Working Group set up by the Lithuanian authorities. In VET, the project has helped to steer the ongoing discussions on the need to strengthen KPMPC role in quality assurance, the necessary changes in initial teacher training and apprenticeship regulations, all of which, eventually, have been reflected in the plan. 

Useful Links

More about the project

You can read the documents related to the project here: