President of the Constitutional Court,
President of the Supreme Court,
Honorable Ministers,
Your Magnificencies Rectors,
Your Excellencies Ambassadors,
Your Excellency Bishop,
Honorable guest
Eminent Founders and Lecturers of our Alma Mater,
Dear Students, Alumni, Partners,
Colleagues,
I am sincerely grateful to all who are here today with me. I am happy to be together with people who were creating this University, making personal sacrifices for its sake, growing the University through their daily contribution, who studied and are studying in it now, who hold a sincere faith and pride in it, who drew a lot from it and are ready to give more in return.
Why is this University of such importance to me? I matured in this University as a human being and as an individual, I met here the eminent teachers of my life, who empowered me not only with knowledge and skills, but also instilled in me the tolerance for a diversity of opinions, values, openness to novelties, let me develop abilities to make choices, courage to try, freedom to stay myself; share success and to-gether with the community celebrate the results of our creative ventures.
My faith in this University and in its community is sustained by that that before my very eyes and in my own heart I witnessed its moments of decline and triumph. This school of higher educa-tion born along with Lithuanian Independence declared a noble mission to contribute to the de-velopment of a modern generation of the rule of law state, to the establishment of a system of rule of law based on democratic grounds, justice, respect for the Constitution and the ideas of citizenship by the free generation of Lithuanian lawyers. In a short period of time the University grew from a school of higher education with rather narrow specialisa-tion into the University of Social Sciences and Humanities, and took an honorary name of Mykolas Romeris University. Mykolas Romeris is a remarkable personality both in Lithuania and in the whole area of Central and Eastern Europe, his character traits – exceptional energy, ingenuity, internationalism, strong democratic position, tolerance, profound ci-vic insights, capacity for self-sacrifices in the interest of the state and of the socium reflect the spirit and distinction of our Univer-sity.
Today, standing here before you, I honestly believe that we together turn a new page in Mykolas Romeris University history. Globally, higher education and education in general meets new challenges which should become new opportunities as well. One of the greatest missions of the Social Sciences and Humanities in the 21st century is human-isation of technologies. Artificial intelligence, robotics, nano, bio and other technologies enter our daily life at an unprecedented rate. What will be the meeting point and cooperation of these techno-logies and artificial intelligence with a human being and with a society? Are we, who created these technologies, properly prepared to accept these technologies and let them into our lives without confusion and doubt? Are we prepared to benefit from the new possibilities without infringing the founding humanistic values, norms of law, ethics and sensitive empathic relations with others cherished over thousands of years.
Even now between law and technologies new links emerge which raise important issues of data protection, privacy, human dignity, identity, new damage prevention systems are installed, standards of professional ethics change. The regulation of these areas will require interdisciplinary approach, joint effort of professionals of modern technologies and lawyers, political scientists, ma-nagement professionals, psychologists, educologists, economists, communication specialists. Tech-nological advancement causes disappearance of low qualification jobs and appearance of new pro-fessions. In these conditions the role of universities is key in promoting lifelong learning, acquisition of new competencies and skills indispensable for the life fulfillment irrespective of age, social status and education.
At the same time, modern society faces growing challenges of diversification of social depri-vation, discrimination, inequalities, growing poverty, terrorism, threats of war, migration, climate change, consolidation of anti-democratic forces, a growing gap between the political and economic elite and common citizens. Therefore, the place of universities and, particularly, that of Social Sciences and Humanities is and continues to be decisive and will become even more important in modelling the resolutions of these problems, in educating the competences for dealing with the future changes and challenges; in implementing sci-entific research of high excellency and projecting innovations. Not only professional but also univer-sal skills that provide opportunities in understanding and analysing large and dynamically changing flows of information gain more importance. The value of intercultural communication competence grows, as well as those of creativity, critical thinking, flexibility, ability to work in close international teams.
Mykolas Romeris University identifies itself as a higher education institution of society and state sciences, leading in Li-thuania and in the competitive area of higher education in Europe and world wide. At this University the most advanced practice and methods are systematically implemented into teaching, research, innovative and society impacting functions, communal environment and in this way contributes to forming a more inclusive, just and sustainable growth of society and the solution of challenges attending the growth.
One of my biggest goals is to apply principles of a sustainable university in the processes of study, scientific function and environment, that are already introduced in the forward universities in the world. For us, for the University community it is very important to feel the institutional and personal commitment of each and every to social, ethical and ecological re-sponsibility, and integration of these dimensions into the study content, communal behavior and va-lues; to educated critical thinking, to secure sustainable models of university cooperation both nationally and internationally. Further planning of the academic campus, study and research areas, their design and development will be in accord with the principles of ecological responsible consumption and application of measures redu-cing negative impact upon nature. Academic campus should grow into “a life-size laboratory of sharing and promoting cultural diversity”, involving the community into environ-mentally friendly studies, health promotional activities, active leisure activities.
The traditional study process, at the most advanced universities, is gradually replaced by the mixed mobility type studies, and an individualised approach to a student, effective academic support systems are created and experience-based learning is deve-loped for linking practice to studies.
Creative team project work will become unavoidability, University will have to adopt a flexible study schedule that allows students to combine their work and studies. Distant studies will grown in proportion – study material is even now being transformed into digital forms. In these conditions, the need for growth of flexible, innovative study models and for creation and testing of innovative tools and methods will become critical. Therefore, I call the transformation, digitalisation of study models one of the university priorities.
A significant part of the university function in the condition of the negative population growth is the attraction of talented foreign students from abroad to Lithuania, by offering quality studies in the English language. The University is leading in this area, since it has developed international partnerships with Southern Korean, Ukrainian universities. Suc-cessful working strategies for partnerships have to be extended to more international partnerships. It is important to broaden and modernise international marketing, to develop international alumni ambassador initiative, to promote new and flexible open forms of cooperation with international partners, use of a distant study platforms and other technological tools.
Lifelong learning, recognition of competencies acquired through non-formal education, relevant modules, short programmes, qualification improvement studies for those who completed university studies and for the professionals and alumni working in the practical field are underdeveloped and highly perspective areas of growth that should receive the most investment of time, effort and resources in the closest future.
We have developed a unique network based science management ecosystem in Lithuania, a network of Social Innovation Laboratories, which is a working space for pooled interdisciplinary teams of scientists, researchers and students; it operates an effective science and innovation support system that we must further strengthen and develop and increase the scope of project related and commissioned research. In the near future, we plan to set up a Science Foundation whose operational objectives are to fund the necessary research and dissemination costs for researchers, to provide financial support to start-up researchers, to fund professional memberships. In the field of knowledge and technology transfer, we will further develop science-business-government partnerships, commissioned research activities, and encourage students, professors and researchers to develop innovative businesses, collaborative ecosystems. Our particular attention should be paid to the renewal and continuous improvement of the staff, the attraction of talented researchers, doctoral students, post-doctoral students and visiting professors to the University. This is likely to stimulate the development of new international network structures, the development of new synergies in research topics and the improvement of scientific and innovative performance. With increasing volumes of scientific publishing, research projects and outsourcing research, we have to focus on the development of responsible scientific publishing practice at the university, the culture and infrastructure of academic ethics, and to strengthen the activities of the University Academic Ethics Center.
We will pay special attention to the cooperation activities with the University alumni. By bringing together graduates, former teachers and staff, we could implement lifelong learning activities, mentoring programmes more effectively, create a better support system for students and teachers, develop a spectrum of social services, and foster community traditions. The social network formed during studies is becoming an important component of university education. Knowledge today can be obtained without leaving home, and a strong social network can only be created by working and communicating with peers. To achieve this goal, the University space is well served with ongoing cooperation not only among students but also between students and teachers, researchers, practitioners, to opens up further cognitive and career perspectives.
Since its inception, every member of the community has been and is the greatest value of this University. Here, everyone can implement and realize their creative, professional potential, scientific ideas, be heard and receive support. The future of the University will depend on our mutual trust, partnership and focused efforts. By working together, believing in viable ideas and trusting each other, we can turn challenges into new opportunities. We have already experienced this, so we know perfectly well that nothing is impossible when working together.
I would like to complete my speech with the words of Mykolas Romeris: “Science is and must be free, uninhibited, and not a subject of political speculation, sincere and courageous, not influenced in advance, nor from the superior positions, but it must be this so that it can access as fair and just as possible conclusions of actual truth that could be in the service of a social individual – of society. Otherwise, it will not perform its social function and will not be blessed but cursed ”(1937).
Thank you for your attention.
delivered by MRU Rector Prof. Dr. Inga Žalėnienė March 28th, 2019
(translated from Lithuanian by MRU Assoc. Prof. Lora Tamošiūnienė)