VMU to Host Conference of Young Sociologists and Anthropologists

The Department of Sociology at Vytautas Magnus University and the Lithuanian Sociological Association would like to invite you to participate in the 9th annual National conference of young sociologists and anthropologists “Actual Research in Sociology and Anthropology: Problems and Contexts”. The conference will be held on April 21^st, 2023, in the Faculty of Social Sciences at Vytautas Magnus University, Jonavos St. 66, Kaunas.

National conference of young sociologists and anthropologists is a traditional annual event that provides a platform for beginning researchers to present their bachelor, master, and doctoral research, share their discoveries, discuss future research and meet like-minded people.

This year’s conference theme is “Own-Alien-Other: building borders and crossing borders in the context of the current geopolitical situation”.

Our social life consists of constantly building borders and boundaries, and constantly crossing them. In the literal sense – as building walls and urgently guarding state borders against “illegal” migrants and in fear of war, but also as free crossing of these borders by us – as emigrants. Borders and boundaries also have a more metaphorical sense, meaning the constant determination and negotiation of where are the boundaries of our social, religious, ethnic group, and where the “stranger” or the “other” begins. But we must remember that borders are not just something negative – without borders, without the “stranger”, we would not be able to define ourselves – without defining these “others”, “we” would not exist.

The organizers of conference welcome all students and young researchers from a wide range of study disciplines – sociology, anthropology, and related disciplines such as political science, economy, communication, creative industries, psychology, social work, history, ethnography, and many others which use social research methods.

Submissions can propose theoretical and empirical presentations. Conference languages – Lithuanian and English. The participation in the conference is free of charge.

You are welcome to submit an abstract for the conference by email sk@vdu.lt until 3 April 2023.

Requirements for the abstract:

Maximum 250 words, including the title, major idea and arguments of the presentation;
Please, indicate the name and surname of the presenter, institution, position, and the stage of studies (if you are a student), contact information (email address).

There will be an opportunity to publish the scientific articles, based on the presentations, in the peer-review scientific journal “Culture and Society: Journal of Social Research”, published by the VMU Department of Sociology. If you plan to prepare such an article, please, indicate this in your abstract.

The conference email: sk@vdu.lt

Apply for Full-time Master’s Degree Studies Scholarships

Education Exchanges Support Foundation opened a call for applications for 100 Lithuanian state scholarships for full-time Master’s degree studies at Lithuanian higher education institutions for the year 2023.

Funding under the call will be provided to the citizens of Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus (Citizens of Belarus must hold a valid residence permit in Lithuania), China, Georgia, Israel, Japan, South Korea, Moldova, Ukraine, and foreigners of Lithuanian origin from non-EU and EFTA countries.

Types of Scholarships:

A monthly scholarship (490 Eur) and a grant covering the study cost is offered to citizens of: Ukraine, Belarus, Armenia, Georgia, foreign citizens of Lithuanian origin, Moldova, Azerbaijan.
A monthly scholarship (490 Eur) is offered to citizens of China, Israel, Japan, South Korea.

What to study?

Choose one of these VMU programmes and get 1 extra point to your application:

Or apply for any other programme from our list of programmes taught in English language.

Application procedure:

Prepare all the required documents for admission at VMU
Apply online for studies at VMU
Get letter of acceptance
Learn more about scholarhips requirements and application procedure
Apply for the State scholarship

Scholarship application deadline is 22 May 2023. Hurry up and apply as soon as possible just to make sure that you will have time to prepare all the documents on time.

Have questions about admission to university? Feel free to contact us at studies@vdu.lt

Need more information about Scholarships? Please find it here or contact by email: master.scholarships@smpf.lt

We congratulate the VMU community on the 11th of March!

We congratulate the entire community of Vytautas Magnus University on the 11th of March – the Day of the Restoration of Independence of Lithuania!

This year, as we mark the 33rd anniversary of the restoration of our independence, let us celebrate our freedom: let us appreciate the determination and unity of the people who dared to resist the aggressor in 1990 and who decided to lead our country on the path of Western democracy.

Let us encourage and support our brothers and sisters in Ukraine whose struggle for freedom to live in an independent state remains ongoing.

May you take pride in your country, have high spirits, and feel freedom in your hearts!

Transform4Europe invites to Festival of European Culture in Poland

Transform4Europe invites you to participate in the T4EU Festival of European Culture, which will be held on 24-28th April 2023 at the University of Silesia.

With the event taking place in two different cities, the visitors will not only be able to feel the atmosphere of an urban city of Katowice and a cross-border city of Cieszyn, but they will also get a taste of Silesia region and Cieszyn Land. In addition to that, they will get a chance to experience various forms of artistic creativity in a wide range of workshops that have been prepared. The workshops will be dedicated to filmmaking, music, theatre, dance, comics, ceramics, performance art, posters, animation, game design etc.

Travel and accommodation expenses of the students will be covered by T4EU initiative.

Application deadline for participants is March 12th.

Information about recruitment procedure for VMU representatives is available by email at Transform4Europe@vdu.lt.

More information

Registration

Invitation to VMU Student Conference “Freedom to Create 2023”

VMU invites students to participate in a student conference “Freedom to Create 2023” which will be held on April 28th, 2023. The conference will address the international Sustainable Development Goals set by the United Nations (UN). The conference will take place at the VMU Multifunctional Science and Studies Centre (V. Putvinskio g. 23, Kaunas).

Undergraduate, graduate and exchange students of all fields of study are invited to deliver their presentations, present their creative work and/or moderate one of the conference parallel sessions. Presentations can be made individually or in a group with other students.

Conference Languages: Lithuanian, English and other languages taught at the university.

Registration is open until 15 March.

More information and the registration form can be found here:

https://www.vdu.lt/en/vmu-invites-you-to-a-student-conference-freedom-to-create-2023/

You are cordially invited!

Erasmus+ Traineeship Competition for any country the world

A competition is open for Erasmus+ student or recent graduate traineeship grants for traineeships in any country in the world. Application deadline is the 28th of February, 2023.

The placement period is from 2 to 6 months. Recent graduate traineeship must end – in a year after graduation.

Selection

All VMU full-time 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):

Filled-in application form „Outgoing-Application for Erasmus Student Traineeship“
Confirmation by the company or organization (obligatory).

Documents must be submitted online.

For recent graduate traineeship (application must be submitted during the last year of studies):

Application form „Outgoing-Application for Erasmus Recent Graduate Traineeship “
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).

Traineeship grants:

For EU and EEA countries:

Country group	Country	Monthly scholarship size
Group I	Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Ireland, Luxembourg, Sweden, United Kingdom, Liechtenstein, Norway	700,00 Eur
Group II	Austria, Belgium, ,Germany, France, Italy, Greece, Spain, Cyprus, Netherlands, Malta, Portugal	670,00 Eur
Group III	Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, North Macedonia, Turkey	600,00 Eur
Group IV	Switzerland	700,00 Eur

For Non-EU/EEA countries:

Scholarship is 700,00 Eur/month.

Travel grant (depends on the distance between sending and receiving institutions):

100-499 km – 180,00 Eur
500-1999 km – 275,00 Eur
2000-2999 km – 360,00 Eur
3000-3999 km – 530,00 Eur
4000-7999 km – 820,00 Eur
More than 8000 km – 1500,00 Eur

Additional travel grants for green travelling options.

The competition results will be sent to every participant via e-mail.

More information:

Christmas greeting ✨

Erasmus+ Traineeship Competition for any country the world

A competition is open for Erasmus+ student or recent graduate traineeship grants for traineeships in any country in the world. Application deadline is the 13th of November, 2022.

The placement period is from 2 to 6 months. Recent graduate traineeship must end – in a year after graduation.

Selection

All VMU full-time 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):

Filled-in application form „Outgoing-Application for Erasmus Student Traineeship“
Confirmation by the company or organization (obligatory).

Documents must be submitted online.

For recent graduate traineeship (application must be submitted during the last year of studies):

Application form „Outgoing-Application for Erasmus Recent Graduate Traineeship “
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).

Traineeship grants:

For EU and EEA countries:

Country group	Country	Monthly scholarship size
Group I	Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Ireland, Luxembourg, Sweden, United Kingdom, Liechtenstein, Norway	700,00 Eur
Group II	Austria, Belgium, ,Germany, France, Italy, Greece, Spain, Cyprus, Netherlands, Malta, Portugal	650,00 Eur
Group III	Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, North Macedonia, Turkey	600,00 Eur
Group IV	Switzerland	700,00 Eur

For Non-EU/EEA countries:

Scholarship is 700,00 Eur/month.

Travel grant (depends on the distance between sending and receiving institutions):

100-499 km – 180,00 Eur
500-1999 km – 275,00 Eur
2000-2999 km – 360,00 Eur
3000-3999 km – 530,00 Eur
4000-7999 km – 820,00 Eur
More than 8000 km – 1500,00 Eur

Additional travel grants for green travelling options.

The competition results will be sent to every participant via e-mail.

Organizational Psychology program

Are you last year student of Psychology Bachelor or already a graduate and seeking Master‘s Degree In Psychology?

Would you like to familiarize yourself with the Master’s Organizational Psychology program (double degree with Louvain University in Belgium) at Vytautas Magnus University?

Then join us for an open lecture: “Positive interaction between work and personal life: Mission (Im)possible?”

Lecturers: Tadas Vadvilavičius and Loreta Gustaitienė

You will be able to know more about MA programme, enjoy an impactful lecture simultaneously.

Time and place: June 28, 3 PM– 4 PM (GMT+3), Online via MS TEAMS platform.

Register here before the event and leave your questions for discussion or just click here to join the lecture!

Organized by:

VMU PSYCHOLOGY DEPARTMENT AND

VMU INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION DEPARTMENT

Interview with Richard Adu about his experience while studying at VMU

Hello, Richard! I am really glad you agreed to be interviewed about your research and experience of Erasmus+ exchange at VMU. Could you please introduce yourself? Where are you coming from? What is your research topic? What is the focus of your dissertation?

Richard Adu is my name, I am a doctoral candidate from the Department of Psychology, University of Ibadan (UI), Nigeria, and an Erasmus+ exchange student at the Department of Psychology, Faculty of Social Sciences, VMU, for the spring semester 2022.

My Ph.D. thesis is on organisational justice, transformational leadership and moderating role of job insecurity on job performance with the focus on civil servants in Oyo State, Nigeria. Literature indicates that civil service in Nigeria suffers setbacks essentially because of the poor performance of the civil servants. Hence, the need to improve the performance of civil servants in Nigeria has been identified as one of the major challenges the country is facing today. The broad objective of the thesis is to explore the role of job insecurity in the link between the organisational justice, its components (distributive, procedural and interactional) and civil servants’ job performance.

As a PhD candidate, you have chosen to spend several months through Erasmus+ programme at VMU, the Faculty of Social Sciences. Why did you choose this university? And how did you learn about it?

I learned about VMU through the Office of International Programmes of my home university and the call for nomination for the Erasmus+ Programme at VMU. There has been a long-time collaboration between UI and VMU. The UI is one of the foremost universities in Africa, and Nigeria in particular, that does not go into collaboration with half-baked universities. Besides, my research revealed VMU as a well-balanced university that is recognised for its high standard of teaching and research alongside its first-class facilities.

How would you generally describe your experience at VMU? Also, how do you feel in Kaunas and Lithuania?

My personal experience since my arrival at VMU has been wholesome. In short, I consider myself as one of the most favoured candidates for the Erasmus+ exchange study at VMU for the spring semester 2022. You may ask why? I enjoined the full cooperation and assistance of my thesis supervisor here at the VMU. For instance, the assigned supervisor has read my thesis and provided valuable feedback that greatly impacted my thesis. The professor also linked me up with a training that I profited from in no small way.

Oh! My God, I repeat it to anyone who cares to hear, I am the most cared for Erasmus + programme student for spring semester, 2022. The Department of Psychology and the Faculty of Social Sciences have been wonderful since I arrived to VMU as a visiting PhD student. I was provided with working space and a laptop to work with at the department. The Chair also gave me the privilege to present my thesis at the departmental staff meeting, which, again, further improved the quality of my thesis. Now you will agree with me that I am the most cared for Erasmus+ Programme student at the VMU for the spring semester 2022.

In general, my experience in Kaunas and Lithuania lead to the conclusion that Lithuanians are good people! And great people! Within the first two weeks of arrival in Kaunas, I had trouble finding my way in the city, but I have always found people, young and old, to help me out. In some occasions, even those who do not speak English, still found a way to assist.

What do you like the most during your stay at VMU?

The most exciting aspect of my stay at VMU is my one-on-one interactions with experts and other doctoral students in my field.

Would you recommend VMU for other students and researchers who want to study abroad? Why?

I whole-heartedly recommend VMU to other students and researchers who want to study abroad for the opportunity to experience what I have experienced.

What are your career plans for the future?

I intend to be a university teacher by picking up a long-term position in academia and becoming an integral part of an international team, contributing to its success.

Thank you for the conversation.

Interview conducted by Laura Lapinskė, International relations coordinator of the Faculty of Social Sciences at VMU