“When I look at how the University of Vytautas the Great looks now, it is so heartwarming that what we wanted while restoring it happened. Although there is a great need for specialists, it is even more important that they are people who are able to adapt to urgent changes and understand the important role universities play in the life of the state and nation. Therefore, when I came to Lithuania, I thought that the most important thing is to have one university that would be different – it would not be accustomed to follow the Soviet system for 50 years”, says the first elected in 1989. the rector of the restored Vytautas the Great University (VDU), professor Algirdas Avižienis, thanks to whom VDU became the first Lithuanian university to adapt liberal arts (liberal arts) principles in their studies and offered the opportunity to acquire a comprehensive education.
In the United States, Prof. A. Avižienis worked for thirty years at the California State University in Los Angeles (UCLA), one of the twenty best universities in the United States, which annually receives as many as 100,000 applications. While at UCLA, the computer scientist developed the fault-tolerant computer architecture that is widely used around the world today.
Based on the study system of another prestigious US university, Harvard University, the internationally recognized scientist prof. A. Avižienis decided to adapt it to VMU – to give students the freedom to choose their study subjects, form their own schedule, not limited to their specialty, learn foreign languages, optionally study subjects in various fields: from philosophy or biology to psychology or media art.
Specialties will change – it is more important to educate thinking people
“Let’s try to implement such a university in Lithuania, whose first task is to educate thinking, independent people who understand the world, and one or another specialty is not so important. After all, those specialties will change, and people live longer now. That’s why I decided to bring such a program. And my other decision was to find young, talented scientists in Lithuania who are not yet accustomed to the Soviet order”, recalls prof. Algirdas Aviženis.
The professor emeritus of UCLA and VSU notes that the understanding of liberal arts has changed over the course of two thousand years, but the essence has remained – such an education helps to learn what is most important to humanity at that time, regardless of a specific specialty, in order to prepare a person for future challenges and specialties that maybe it doesn’t even exist today.
According to VDU Honorary Professor, his work as rector left him with the best memories – both because he worked with extremely enthusiastic colleagues and because the students themselves were eager to learn and everything was interesting to them.
“It’s nice to remember the enthusiasm with which we worked. Together with the vice-rector for scientific affairs, prof. With Vytautas Kaminskas, we sometimes spent until midnight planning how to further develop the programs, what to do next. We started the university with 177 freshmen who had to be selected from 805 applicants. I knew almost everyone who joined. And everything was so interesting for the students, it especially lifted my spirits. Liberal arts they were “interested” in studies”, says prof. A. Avižienis, explaining that the variety offered by liberal arts studies allows to maintain the interest of young people, helps them discover what is most interesting, instead of limiting themselves to only narrow specialty subjects.
VDU is an example for other Lithuanian universities to follow
The professor assures that the study model applied by VMU today is an excellent example for other Lithuanian higher education institutions to follow. “Universities can see how that VDU model works – I think they’ll see that students need that foundation.” Technology and health sciences are very specific, but if you give their students the opportunity to study philosophy or music, they will definitely become even better doctors and researchers,” notes Prof. A. Oatmeal.
“I wish that VDU becomes an example for other universities so that they borrow what suits them. The most important thing is that all Lithuanian universities strive to produce as many talented, intelligent people as possible, who have a vocation and are not afraid to go into politics – after all, like all over the world, higher education is very dependent on the government at that time”, – points out the researcher, even singling out the University of California in Los Angeles as an example of an autonomous university – UCLA is governed not by a ministry, but by a council (eng. Board of Regents), which consists of 26 responsible Californians representing various fields, including the Governor of California and the Secretary of Education. On the other hand, VDU surpasses even UCLA in some areas – for example, it offers the opportunity to study as many as 30 foreign languages.
The interlocutor does not spare good words not only for VDU, but also for all of Lithuania and its scientists, whom he often meets at various conferences around the world – he even keeps a certain list with their names. Among the promising scientists is A. Avižienis’s own son Audrius, a doctor of physical chemistry at UCLA, who also maintains contacts with Lithuanian specialists in his field of science living in Germany, Canada, and Japan.
“I can’t be surprised how well Lithuanian young people perform in other parts of the world, because the progress of the country must be judged from this. Our students are really mature and doing well in the academic world. It would be more fun for them to return to Lithuania sooner. All that remains is to invite them to visit regularly or to lead groups of young people, especially doctoral students,” hopes the computer scientist.
Universities must be more open
Sharing advice for young people who are still considering where to enroll, prof. A. Avižienis emphasizes that the most important thing is to choose what you are interested in, not what your parents suggest. According to him, it is good that VMU gives students the opportunity to get to know the university in advance, to visit and see how studies are conducted here, what are the conditions offered. And for university employees, the professor wants to use the opportunities offered by the EU – to cooperate with teachers and employees of universities in other countries. However, it is also important to maintain relations within Lithuania, to be more open.
“In the USA, we had the task of sending our best doctoral students to other universities, and they send us theirs. If it were to happen that Vilnius University and I shared the best PhD students, it would be even better for both universities. But you have to get used to it. I really didn’t like it when there was a question of baskets, when universities were almost forced to be as closed as possible, not to give away their secrets. We need to improve each other by exchanging the best scientists we have brought up,” the first elected rector of the restored VMU is convinced.
Lithuania is like paradise
The professor emeritus of the University of California in Los Angeles admits that now he spends more time in Lithuania than before, because he is very happy to be here. “I think America is too big, I decided to run back to Lithuania. I used to spend half my time here, now I say I will spend two thirds. Well, how can you not be here, tell me? When I come back here, to my hometown Kaunas or my native Anykščias, I feel like I’ve returned to a kind of paradise”, says Prof. who lives next to the VDU Botanic Garden and enjoys the beauty of Lithuanian nature. A. Oatmeal.
While in Lithuania, the professor regularly meets with old friends and acquaintances, among them his study friend, President Valdus Adamkus, who has finished his term, with whom prof. A. Oavizienis studied in the USA. “The funniest thing is what we talked about, about the years of study, how much fun we had then: we felt stronger than American students. We went through the experiences of the war, after surviving the concentration camps, we felt that we understood the world better than our fellow Americans,” the professor recalled.
What does Lithuanian higher education need?
When asked what is the most important task for Lithuanian higher education institutions today, the professor answered without hesitation – it is necessary to restore academic autonomy, which was legalized by the first Law on Science and Studies, adopted by the Supreme Council on February 12, 1991. Instead of the Soviet ministry, the Lithuanian Science Council was established to manage higher education, elected by scientists and subordinate to the Seimas of the Republic of Lithuania.
“Unfortunately, within a few years, this Council became subordinate to the Ministry of Education, Science and Sports, which was governed by 15 ministers during 33 years. It was a return to the Soviet model of higher education management, only instead of one minister of the Communist Party, the party affiliation of the ministers changed 11 times. None of those ministers had a doctorate degree from Western European or North American universities, so their limited experience limited what they and their teams could give to Lithuanian higher education,” explains Prof. A. Oatmeal.
According to the interviewer, the autonomy of higher education institutions will allow them to invite famous scientists working in foreign universities to the Council. “They would be both Lithuanians and citizens of other countries friendly to Lithuania. Only such a Scientific Council can raise the scientific level of Lithuanian universities to the best European higher education institutions. I sincerely hope that this can be done within the next decade”, hopes the Honorary Professor of VDU.
