Konkurencija tarp aukštųjų mokyklų - teoriniai modeliai ir plėtotės galimybės
Competition in Higher Education - Theoretical Models and Possible Ways of Development

Summary/Abstract: Financial reform of higher education is perhaps one of the most disputable topics of the current reform initiatives in Lithuania. However, competition among higher education institutions as one of the inevitable aspects of the financial reform so far receives much less detailed attention from die reformers of higher education. Suggestions concerning competition mechanisms voiced by the reform enthusiasts are rather contradictory and sometimes just incompatible. Therefore die aim of our study was to analyse different theoretical models of competition in higher education and to depict the possible ways of their development. Our major assumption was that there are at least three theoretical models of competition in higher education: free market competition, absence of competition or monopoly, and limited competition. Free market competition is practically unapplicable in Lithuanian higher education as well as in most of the other countries, though some believers in radical liberalism are still promoting free market approach in the educational domain. The model of state monopoly in higher education is rather well known by older academics. The Soviet model of higher education was a monopolistic one, and such an approach still has its own supporters.

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