Transformations  in
Business & Economics

TQM in University Studies: Quality Assessment and Quality Assurance in a Lithuanian University
Dainora Grundey

ABSTRACT. Nowadays issues of quality in higher education in Lithuania emerge very often as the country is integrating into the EU processes. Generally, quality is linked with some standards, i.e. whether studies at the university fit a certain purpose. However, many actors in the study process (students, lecturers, employers) have different aims and they may measure quality in different ways. The process of assessment of quality in higher education in Lithuania consists of self-evaluation process and external expert review. As self-evaluation is an essential part of quality assessment in higher education, this paper focuses on the ways, which can be employed by university to evaluate a certain study programme. A survey was carried out by International Group of Young Scientists (IGYS) at Kaunas Faculty of Humanities, Vilnius University (Lithuania), before a renewed MBA program of Marketing and Trade Management is introduced on 1^st September, 2003. The paper concludes how self-evaluation results could be used in practice to assure and/or improve the quality in higher education in Lithuanian universities.

KEYWORDS: higher education, quality, university, total quality management (TQM), quality assessment, Lithuania.

JEL classification: I2, P36, P2.