| Abstract [eng] |
The research paper "Public Discourse on Lithuanian Higher Education" discloses that despite the achievements and international recognition, society is critical of the higher education system and university activities. The discrepancy between the assessment results by the Lithuanian society and international, might be possible due to the biased information provided by the media. The public discourse on higher education concentrates on the higher education image building process and aims to provide the answers to the questions: what, how and why the media builds that type of image and what the consequences are. The purpose of the research was to analyze the data from the articles on higher education in the traditional and internet media during the period September 2005 to March 2006. The findings prove that the majority of the articles on higher education are critical. The number and the content of the articles disclosed a tendency to build a negative image of the higher education institutions in the media. Opinion leaders put forward a message that the following stakeholders are not satisfied with the quality of higher education: students, young scientists and employers. Critique of the higher education management ranked as the most frequent among other topics on higher education. This closely relates to other internal problems of higher education institution which provoke critical reaction from the public. The author states that corruption, protectionism, stagnation in the higher education, are the topics that are easily understood by the general public and escalate negative image building. The research on the frequency of mentioning higher education topic by months, show that even in the context of other important higher education related events, the topics mentioned above prevail. Comparing the attitudes on education topics created by the media to public statistical data, we have noticed that the media manipulates statistical data and other discourse facts and statements to promote a negative higher education image. Since the majority of the Lithuanian society are not familiar with the Lithuanian laws on higher education and EU documents, they do not distinqiush between college and university education which makes it easy to charnel a biased and distorted information through the media. The lack of information on the international tendencies in higher education can also help to view the local problems as unique. Comparison of the ways the problems are presented in Great Britain and Lithuanian media show different attitudes and aims. Only a close cooperation between the stakeholders (students, higher education institution, government, businesses) can guarantee quality higher education. Likewise, these stakeholders are responsible for the state and the quality of the higher education. However, only the businesses avoid the critique in the media. Moreover, the statements made by the businesses on higher education, protection of the areas directly related to business and ignoring and treating other areas as inferior, show their attempt to re- organize universities to serve their purposes only and to equally participate in the allocation of the EU structural funds. Thus, we make a preposition that certain business groups are responsible for the negative image building of the higher education in Lithuania. This divides the academic society, as well as Lithuanian society and involves into fruitless debates, postpones decision making, reform implementation and development of the higher education. Abundance of the critical articles diminishes the value of the higher education in the eyes of the Lithuanian society. |
