Apply Now: BA and MA Degree Studies at VMU (Extended Deadline)
Vytautas Magnus University (VMU) welcomes international students to apply for 11 Bachelor and 21 Master degree study programmes in the English language. Application deadline for studies in the 2018/2019 academic year has been extended to 15 July. Application submissions have to be sent online.
This year VMU offers a wide range of study programmes in the English language, including interdisciplinary, joint, international programmes with foreign partners and others. The programmes are taught in Kaunas or Vilnius. Applications and admissions are managed by the International Cooperation Department.
New and Updated Study Programmes
Two completely new study programmes have been launched this year: BA of Business Administration and MA of Organizational Psychology.
Bachelor degree programme of Business Administration prepares broad profile specialists who are able to take up professional activities of business administrators, lower level managers etc., to work in any business organization’s administration unit, also in small and medium business companies.
Master degree programme of Organizational Psychology is designed to prepare a psychologist capable of applying current knowledge and methods in psychology, research, consultation and counselling skills based on sound scientific and ethical principles that promote psychosocial well-being and organizational effectiveness within the context of economic and social change.
Other updated available BA study programmes include Music Production, Economics and Finance, English Philology, Informatics Systems, Biology and Genetics, Biotechnology, Environmental Science and Ecology, International Politics and Development studies, World Politics and Economy, Society, Culture and Communication.
At MA level, students can apply for Finance, International Economics, Marketing and International Commerce, Sports Business MBA, East Asia Region Studies, Sociolinguistics and Multilingualism, Applied Informatics, International Business Law, Applied Biotechnology, Environmental Management, Molecular Biology and Biotechnology, Diplomacy, Diplomacy and International Relations, Journalism and Media Industries, The Interdisciplinary Master’s in East European Research and Studies (MIREES), Applied Sociology, Educational Management, Social Anthropology, Social Work, Performing Arts.
State Grants for Full-Time MA Studies
The Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of Lithuania has opened a call for applications for 70 Lithuanian state grants funding full-time Master degree or Integrated studies at Lithuanian higher education institutions in the academic year 2018/2019. The funding under the Call shall be provided to the nationals of the Ukraine, Belarus, Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Moldova, Japan, China, South Korea and Israel and foreigners of Lithuanian origin.
All approved candidates will receive a monthly scholarship of 380 euros for the whole duration of the studies. The cost of the full-time MA degree studies will be covered (up to the limit not exceeding the national standard cost of studies) only for the nationals of the Ukraine, Belarus and Georgia and foreign citizens of Lithuanian origin.
More information about studies at VMU
The visit of Higher Education didactics experts
On the 1st of December the higher education didactics experts from the University of Warwick (United Kingdom) – prof. Cathia Jenainath and Dr. His Angouri visited Vytautas Magnus University.
The guests have met with the working group of teacher’s professional development in Vytautas Magnus university and participated in discussions with faculties.
The experts during communication process will help to find out the needs of the university teacher’s didactic development, prioritize and, after the visit, will offer a didactic improvement program in the context of Artes liberales studies. This program will be implemented in spring and autumn semesters in 2018, organizing and conducting a cycle of professional development seminars for Vytautas Magnus university.
Prof. dr Cathia Jenainath is the head of the Department of Interdisciplinary Studies at the University of Warwick and the director of artes liberal studies. Assoc. dr His Angour – Bachelor of Arts in Applied Linguistics at the University.
Atention to all VMU students! Competition for erasmus+ studies in partner countries (non-eu countries)
VMU International Cooperation Department invites all VMU students to use possibility to gain international study experience by studying in Erasmus+ partner countries‘ higher education institution (HEI).
Students have to submit completed online application form until 24th of September, 2017.
More information you will find here
A Graduate of Social Work Master studies manages a children’s home in China
My name is Huang Fengyi. Two years ago I graduated from Vytautas Magnus University with a master degree of social work. There were a lot of people who were curious about why I have chosen VDU. I would say it is like my destiny—being in Lithuania and studying in VDU is an experience which has had great influences on my way of thinking, and my view toward the world.
The education I received as a master student of social work was so different with my previous training as a pharmacist. I have learnt to look at the world in a constructive kind of way. I am able to study people’s problems and social problems in a broader framework. I was taught to be down-to-earth, to be patient, and to be reflective.
Two months after I returned to China, there was an earthquake happened in the south-west part of China, Yunnan. I was assigned to the post-earthquake area, as a program coordinator, trying to build some safe places in the villages or schools for the children , where they could study, play and learn some skills. The post-earthquake area is very poor. A lot of young people have to leave their village and try to look for a living in some bigger cities, however, their children usually can not go with them and they are children left-behind–a sad story behind the fast economic development of China, and all over the poor areas of China.
After the project was ended, I returned to the city and worked as a research assistant in a research institute. I started to write researches for the government, and the minor party. I have to say, the research skills I have learnt from my master degree has little to do with what I was doing in the research institute. It was a painful experience, though I have to admit it did give me some knowledge about social work development in China, which I am a bit pessimistic. Even though now the government is pushing to promote social work service in China, the quality of social workers and their services are not properly emphasized. What is lacked? The spirit of down-to-earth service.
What I have learnt from my NGO management class is not to complain. I stopped whining about my research job, and quitted. Right now I am working as a manager in the children’s home. It is very a challenging job and I am still learning how to work for the children. I feel I am doing something I have been wanting to do.
I have encountered a lot of difficulties after I returned to China. I always miss my life and my study in VDU—it was sweet and bitter. Somehow it gives me courage to move forward—life is a journey and I have tried my best.
COMPETITION FOR EXCHANGE STUDIES AT non-EU COUNTRIES
Students are invited to participate in a competition for one semester long exchange studies at non-EU countries with Erasmus+ or VMU Mobility scholarship.
Students have to submit completed online application form until 25th of September 2018.
More information here.
Organizational psychology: insights from science to practice
On September 28th, 2017 assoc. prof. dr. Aurelija Stelmokiene participated in practitioners’ discussion “Diversity and Inclusion: Code “Generations” as an invited speaker. The main topics for discussion were
* Important generational shifts: changes in employee personalities, work attitudes, values and behavior;
* How to deal with these challenges: if previous success formula fits today‘s situation (what works and what should be changed).
It was a great opportunity to try to build a bridge between science and practice.
More details about discussion here: http://dcc.lt/events/upcoming-events/150-diversity-and-inclusion-code-generations
Social Anthropology: One of the Most Important Sciences
“Lithuania is one of the hardest working countries in the world with probably the lowest pay in Europe. If you make only 700 euros a month you cannot expect to live like a European”, says American Professor Victor De Munck, an anthropologist who has worked in the State University of New York and has conducted extensive research in Sri Lanka, Macedonia, Russia, Lithuania and the USA. Currently the scientist is working at Vytautas Magnus University (VMU): he conducts research at the Social Anthropology Department and teaches lectures to students of social anthropology. This field, he says, is one of the most vital ones today.
Social anthropology is a science that examines cultures and communities of people. How is this science significant today, in your opinion?
It is one of the most important, if not the most important, science, first of all, because social anthropologists research culture, and culture is a symbol system which we use to construct meaning in our lives. Culture is not just a linguistic system but also values, beliefs and gestures, rules that we develop: how we eat, get married, practice religion etc.
Another reason is that anthropologists are one of the few types of scientists who use participant observation, i.e. when the researcher not only observes, but also participates in the researched community, gets involved in the subjects‘ life. All social sciences can be valid only if their theories apply to what is happening in natural life. That is what anthropologists seek to understand: how humans live in a natural setting. When people only answer questionnaires, it may have nothing to do with reality.
The third reason is the world is getting more and more fragmented: there‘s more and more stranger communities amongst us. Even within our own kind, we‘ve become fractured: e.g. in Lithuania there are strong Catholics, atheists, different generations, economic statuses etc. Then immigrants come into the country and we have to have global understanding, to understand other people’s cultural orientations to the world and themselves, to understand their perspective or behaviour. Social anthropology provides this knowledge.
You have conducted research on interesting topics in various countries, including Sri Lanka and Macedonia. One of these researches was done in Lithuania, USA and Russia: you compared how the concept of romantic love is understood in those countries. What have you discovered?
As we become more socially mobile, we’ve become more individuated from one another, so romantic love shifts. There used to be social pressures to marry the proper person and to stay married. Now it’s largely individual choice and if you get divorced, there is hardly any stigma attached to it. The whole culture of courtship has changed tremendously and that has affected the structure of family.
The aim of the research was to compare the cultural constructs of romantic love in the US, Lithuania and Russia. I found some significant differences, but I think things have changed: most of the data in Lithuania was collected in 2003-2005.
In Lithuania there was a tendency to consider romantic love as a passing phase: a poetic transitional period. Many people referred to it as Disneyland, champagne, soap bubbles, something that is evanescent and does not last. And only if you get through this period, true love and friendship may develop. Whereas in the US, romantic love means that the person you love is your best friend, it is not a fantasy, but reality and it is developed through friendship. In Russia, like in Lithuania, people also emphasised the temporariness of romantic love and did not mention friendship.
I asked 80 people in each of the three countries and no one in either in Russia or Lithuania mentioned friendship or feeling secure around someone they love, while in the USA, almost everyone said it. That’s a big difference.
How would you explain this difference? Why is romantic love understood so differently in those countries?
In Lithuania, Russia and other European countries, when you start going to the first grade, you spend almost all the remaining public school education with the same group of people. So your mates at school don’t change much and over the years you develop strong friendships, often for life.
In the US, the people in your class shift, so you learn to have brief friendships. In the seventh grade, groups of people also change in classes of different subjects, e.g. history, maths. So you constantly have weak ties. Meanwhile, in Lithuania and in Russia, friendship is developed in strong ties; therefore romantic love cannot lead to friendship because to establish a strong friendship you need a lot of time, in contrast with the US, where ties are developed easily.
A break up is devastating for an American, because it’s not just your lover, but also your best friend, while Lithuanians and Russians take it easier: yes, it may also be tragic at personal level, but culturally you are supposed to get over it a lot quicker, it is seen as a temporary poetic moment, you were not close friends.
Based on my studies, I’m developing arguments that romantic love is a social and psychological universal. In other words, society needs romantic love to keep people together and psychologically there’s kind of chemistry of love that drives people to be attached to one another. It’s not really cultural universal, as lots of cultures prohibit romantic love as criteria for marriage.
Romantic love inhibits a person’s economic interests, because usually in such relationships you think of what is in the best interest of others, not of yourself. This applies to political activism as well: it doesn’t work unless there’s some aspect of romantic love. For instance, to reduce economic inequalities, people have to make sacrifices, and in order to do that, they need to have some affection for the people they’re making sacrifices for. Romantic love is like an elemental force that allows people to act altruistically towards others. Ideology is not enough if you don’t care about others.
You’ve prepared a book, Experiencing Vilnius, with your wife, anthropologist Trini de Munck, and two students from Lithuania. In the book, you researched life in Vilnius anthropologically. What did you discover about life in the Lithuanian capital?
This book is a dialogue between insiders and outsiders about the culture and experiences in Vilnius. Usually in anthropology it’s only the anthropologist studying people. While in this case the locals could respond back to our observations: two Lithuanians reflected in the book on what the foreigners, my wife and I, discovered. There were a lot of exchanges and comments that we understood something in the wrong way. It was eye-opening: if you live here for 1 year you might think your experiences of Vilnius are pretty valid, but if you haven’t lived in a butas (flat) with the savininkė (owner), who is sitting there guarding her flowers and agurkai (cucumbers) in the fridge, you don’t really know a lot about experiencing life as a student in Vilnius.
The book was published in 2010, you collected data for it even earlier. Did you notice any major changes in the everyday life of Vilnius and Lithuania since then?
The book’s material was written when Lithuania joined the EU, in 2003-2004. There was a bubble of enthusiasm, Lithuanians were excited to join. I remember when the President of the USA George W. Bush came here to give a speech, how all enemies of Lithuania were also the enemies of the US. So it was an exciting time and certainly a time of increased expectations.
However, one person I interviewed talked about the open borders and how everyone will leave Lithuania, go to Europe and the last person will “lock the door”, metaphorically speaking. That hasn’t quite happened but certainly migration is a problem that needs to be dealt with, it is one of the big shifts. In 2004 population was roughly 3.4 million, today it is about 2.8 million and headed downwards. EU hasn’t been the panacea, it was not only the solution but also created some problems as well, so it’s a more paradoxical, dialectically confusing relationship between the EU and Lithuania.
Another difference is the increased split between Vilnius and the remaining part of the country. There are a bit too many capital flows into Vilnius and too few into smaller towns. A demographer said that based on his research 30 percent of countryside lives at the level of Africa. We also have problems with corruption, trust between the people and the government, also, how the refugees or immigrants are perceived locally. Humanizing the immigrants is a very important issue that anthropologists can deal with. Finally, people feel indebted; they are not making enough salary, even though Lithuania is one of the hardest working countries in the world with probably the lowest pay in Europe. If you make only 700 euros a month you cannot expect to live like a European, e.g. in the Netherlands, where you would be making 3000 euros for the same job.
Thank you.
More information on Social Anthropology
Unforgettable Memory in VMU
Hi! I’m Yue, from Minzu University of China and majored in sociology in Faculty of Social Sciences of VMU. I’m so glad and grateful to have an opportunity to study and live in Lithuania for a year! 2016. This year can be a turning point of my life~ I wouldn’t forget anything I’ve acquired here: cheerful and agreeable companions, challenging and meaningful seminars, multi-cultural and distinctive environment, conscientious and adorable professors, etc. You will be definitely welcome to the new world, then you can smash your old knowledge, change your opinion, be shocked by differences, be moved by kindness and grow up!
Yue Zhang from China
Erasmus+ Traineeship Competition and Results of the Second Competition
Businessman explaining plan on laptop to colleagues at creative office
VMU International Cooperation department (ICO) has announced the results of the second competition for Erasmus+ students and recent graduates traineeship grants in the 2017 / 2018 academic year.
The third (and the last one in the year 2017/2018) competition is open for Erasmus+ student and recent graduate traineeship grants. Application deadline is 22nd of April, 2018.
The placement period is from 2 to 4 months. Traineeship must end before 21-09-2018 (for recent graduates – in a year after graduation).
Selection
All VMU fulltime degree students who have not used more than 10 months of their Erasmus mobility (study / traineeship) period are eligible for the Erasmus grant.
Selection documents
For student traineeship (traineeship during student’s year of studies)
Documents must be submitted online
For recent graduate traineeship (application must be submitted and student must be selected while applicant is still a student at VMU)
- Application form
- Confirmation by the company or organization (obligatory)
- Recommendation by a faculty member (obligatory)
The priority in the selection is given to
- students whom traineeship is an obligatory part of their study programme;
- students who have never been Erasmus traineeship students before.
Selection criteria
- student’s motivation;
- good knowledge of the language which will be used during the traineeship;
- student’s work, study, traineeship, participation in the international / academic projects, social activities experience in Lithuania and abroad;
- conformability between the chosen traineeship and student’s study programme;
- study results (first year MA students should attach transcript of records of their BA/MA degree to the application form).
The competition results will be sent to every participant via e-mail as well as published on VMU website on 3rd of May.
INTERNATIONAL SUMMER SCHOOL ON GROUNDED THEORY 2018 (ISSGT 2018)
11-15 June, 2018
The Institute of Education, Vytautas Magnus University and The School of Social Researcher in collaboration with the Society for the Study of Symbolic Interaction (SSSI)
We are pleased to introduce you to the most renowned Scholars in the Grounded Theory – Qualitative Research traditions, coming from European Universities, learn and live for some days in a historically rich, stimulating and welcoming town of Kaunas (Lithuania). It will be a five-day, intensive course mainly devoted to introducing participants to Grounded Theory with a practical approach and with the aim to giving answer to questions such as “how to do research”, “how to collect, analyse and interpret qualitative data”, “how to write a research report” basing the results on your findings. Join us at the Summer School and be an active learner in our classes and in our collaborative groups. Meet interesting people and discuss topics of your own interest concerning qualitative methods and how to give answer to your daily research problems.
Why Grounded theory?
A Grounded theory is a research method that will enable you to: develop a theory and explanation about the main concern of the population of your substantive area and how that concern is resolved or processed. Being new to Grounded theory the onus to understand the methodology and the various versions can be daunting. Learning and understanding the differences between Grounded theories methodologies can be as much a learning of one’s own research philosophy and this philosophy is often the deciding factor in methodology selection (Gary L. Evans, 2013). Learning the Grounded theory methodology is challenging, but very interesting journey. Grounded theory is a research tool which enables you to seek out and conceptualise the latent social patterns and structures of your area of interest through the process of constant comparison. Initially you will use an inductive approach to generate substantive codes from your data, later your developing theory will suggest to you where to go next to collect data and which, more-focussed, questions to ask (Walsh et al., 2015). For a lot of students, researchers, scholars and scientists Grounded Theory is used to describe a qualitative analytical method, where they create a coding framework on the fly, from interesting topics that emerge from the data. However, that’s not really accurate. There is a lot more to it, and a myriad of different approaches. Basically, grounded theory aims to create a new theory of interpreting the world, either when it’s an area where there isn’t any existing theory, or you want to challenge what is already out there. An approach that is often overused, it is a valuable way of approaching qualitative research when you aren’t sure what questions to ask. However, it is also a methodological box of worms, with a number of different approaches and confusing literature.
Why it is worth attending the ISSGT 2018?
Qualitative researchers often experience issues such as getting lost after collecting and coding data, overlooking possibilities for developing their ideas, and producing disjointed and mundane reports. Grounded theory methods help you expedite analyzing your data and writing your report. This ISSGT 2018 focuses on improving your skills in using Grounded theory strategies to help you to develop creativity skills and to increase the clarity in your research design and its implementation. Studies in the ISSGT 2018 will help you retain the flexibility of Grounded theory while furthering the conceptual depth and scope of your analysis.
We will emphasize how to: develop and recognize powerful codes, engage in comparative analysis, strengthen your emergent conceptual categories, integrate these categories into a coherent and compelling report, satisfy quality in qualitative analysis, communicate your findings.
It will be an intensive course devoted to working with Grounded theory with a practical approach and with the aim to giving answer to questions such as “How to do the Grounded theory research?”; “How to collect, analyse and interpret qualitative data n Grounded theory research?”; “How to make the visualisation-based Grounded theory?“; “How to incorporate social medias into Grounded theory research?”; “What is the contemplative Grounded theory?”; “How to write a research report based on a Grounded theory?” and etc.
Who are invited to be applicants of learning community in the ISSGT 2018?
The ISSGT 2018 invites to apply the researchers, PhD students, scholars and scientists who already have acquired their PhD’s and are working with qualitative methodologies or still have not chosen the “right” methodology in their research-based scientific path. All the study process will rely on learning, discussing, practicing, creating. Representatives from the social, humanitarian, health and technology sciences are particularly encouraged to participate in ISSGT 2018.
What you will learn attending the Summer School?
Research Design. Build an incisive research design in Grounded theory, basing on the “constructivist” version. Use “sensitising concept” to guide your research and run theoretical sampling.
Collect and Analyse. Using interviews to collect data; collecting and analysing data; initial coding, memoing, categorizing. Develop and recognize powerful codes; engage in comparative analysis.
Visualize and Interpret. Strengthen your emergent conceptual categories; visualize data to support interpretation and comparation; understand theoretical saturation. Use visual grounded theory.
Theory Building. Integrate categories into a coherent and compelling theory; write a research report; satisfy quality in qualitative analysis; communicate your findings.
Who are teachers in ISSGT 2018?
Key teachers: the most renowned scholars in the Grounded theory in Europe – Qualitative Research traditions, professors, coming from European Universities: Tony Bryant (Leeds Beckett University, UK), Krzysztof Konecki (University of Lodz, Poland), Andrea Salvini and Irene Psaroudakis (University of Pisa, Italy), Michael Dellwing (University of Kassel, Germany), Thaddeus Muller (Lancaster University, UK).
Here you will find the detailed information: https://gtsummerschool.vdu.lt/
