Peculiarities of Education Quality Assurance in Lithuania

Abstract

Achievement of objectives of education and training is one of significant factors influencing quality of life. Higher education institutions use different work, teaching methods and tools; however they are inadequate in many cases. Today higher education institutions have problems concerning sustention and rise of certain level of education by giving the job for graduates, using of new technologies that help to present, manage, evaluate and control knowledge. The main objectives of quality management system (QMS) at higher education institutions are as follow: to assure continuous improvement of education quality; to demonstrate performance results and relevant facts to the interested parties (customers of college or university, social partners, administrative institutions) showing the abilities of education institution to prepare high qualification specialists that fully correspond to changing requirements of labour market. The QMS at education institutions should be designed as continuous process, considering that the quality of final product is the result achieved in primary processes. The process shall involve all interested parties. Parameters and indicators of education quality can help to analyze the efficiency and effectiveness of existing QMS. The results of quality audits should be also taken into account when designing and implementing QMS at organization. Literature review showed that for the assurance of education quality three different approaches prevail: total quality management (TQM); requirements of quality awards and assessment models; and QMS corresponding to the requirements of ISO 9001 standard. The case study of QMS design and implementation at Vilnius Law and Business College is presented in the paper. The peculiarities, difficulties and obstacles of QMS implementation in the higher educations institutions are analysed in more detail in this article.