UNINOVIS leads the way to closer co-operation between TAMK and Kauno Kolegija

On Monday 28 November, the delegation, headed by the Director of Kauno Kolegija, Dr. Andrius Brusokas, met with the heads of TAMK schools, all eager to learn more about the new partner institution and what kind of co-operation the UNINOVIS European Universities Alliance could bring along in the future. 

Kauno Kolegija is the second-largest higher education institution in applied sciences in Lithuania with five faculties currently offering 49 Bachelor-level study programs six of which are in English. Kauno Kolegija is a multi-profile educator in the areas of technology and engineering sciences, medicine, arts and humanities, education, agricultural sciences as well as business and law. While presenting the statistics, Director Brusokas mentioned the institution’s impressive student-staff ratio, which stands at 800 staff members to roughly 5000 students. According to Brusokas, Kauno Kolegija also takes great pride in the education level of their staff, aiming to raise the number of staff holding a PhD up to 40 % in the coming years. 

Cultivating the UNINOVIS partnership 

As UNINOVIS partners, TAMK and Kauno Kolegija have many shared interests. Both have a strong incentive to cooperate in areas such as the formulation of higher education strategy and terminology, higher education legislation, as well as sustainability and corporate social responsibility. 

One collaborative effort that has already materialized is a new study module in Creativity and Entrepreneurship (3-6 ECTS) offered by Kauno Kolegija. TAMK’s support, based on its experience in teaching entrepreneurship skills through HUBS and Proakatemia, was highly appreciated at Kauno Kolegija as a benchmark for their new study module. 

Another concrete example of bilateral cooperation is the recently adopted Applied Research (ART) Strategy at Kauno Kolegija, whereby new guidelines and priority areas of applied research have been introduced. Here TAMK’s Applied Research Center (ARC) has been serving both as an inspiration and a guiding model, as Director Brusokas pointed out. It is clear, that closer cooperation in the field of applied research is in the hopes of both institutions and will pave the way for the future Excellence Hubs to be created within the UNINOVIS project.

Developing education together 

One of the main rationales behind joining the UNINOVIS alliance, both for TAMK and Kauno Kolegija, was undoubtedly the desire to better understand and prepare for the future challenges in the field of higher education. Themes such as internationalization, sustainability and wellbeing were raised by Kauno Kolegija’s UNINOVIS coordinator, Jolanta Valiaugienė. 

According to Valiaugiene, there is a strong will to increase the volume of international mobility of both students and staff at Kauno Kolegija through UNINOVIS activities. This includes, among others, enhancing existing Double Degree programs, introducing Twin Study opportunities and increasing both virtual and real-life exchanges between partner universities. Meanwhile, internationalization is also at the heart of TAMK’s strategy, and a specific Steering Group has been established to set a clear agenda, identify key target countries, and monitor the international mobility of students and staff. While the decline in international mobility seems to be a Europe-wide phenomenon, there is hope that UNINOVIS will give internationalization a much-needed boost at both universities. 

Valiaugiene also mentioned food technology and health innovation Hub, which is related to Kauno Kolegija’s Alytaus faculty and located about 60 km from the city of Kaunas. According to Valiaugiene, many companies in that area are related to food industry, so Kauno Kolegija has a vested interest in developing this field together with local companies, municipality and societal actors. Furthermore, as Anna-Maria Mäkelä, the Head of External Funding at TAMK, pointed out, this could provide ground for future cooperation, as TAMK is one of the two universities in the UNINOVIS alliance that will concentrate on the wellness theme. This means that in the future, TAMK and Kauno Kolegija could apply for EU funding for joint projects involving the health and wellbeing sector.

Higher education reforms and their future impact

There is currently a higher education reform underway in Lithuania, which will entail major changes for Kauno Kolegija as well. One of them involves the terminology, which would allow Kauno Kolegija to title itself as University of Applied Sciences by the year 2029. This would bring it on par with other UNINOVIS partners such as TAMK and Würzburg-Schweinfurt – Germany Technical University of Applied Sciences. 

Another significant change involves the curricula and the possibility for Kauno Kolegija to offer education at Master’s level in the future. A close relationship with TAMK could again prove handy when planning the degree courses and modules, as TAMK has been offering Master’s degrees for nearly 20 years and has gained a lot of valuable experience along the way. It is safe to conclude that a good working relationship between TAMK and Kauno Kolegija are now firmly cemented and will, without a doubt, flourish in the years to come.