Two Lithuanian universities to merge

The Kaunas University of Technology (KTU) and Lithuanian University of Health Sciences (LSMU) are merging to form the University of Lithuania, with the ambitious goal of breaking into the list of the top 250 universities in the world by 2025.  

The merger will combine the focus areas of the two current universities across technology, health and social sciences, with the timetable for merging expected to last between three to four years. Students will be admitted from 1 September 2020.

KTU’s Rector Petras Baršauskas suggested part of the thinking behind the merger was to dilute the overcrowded third level in the country. 

Lithuania has an average of 14.5 higher education institutions per one million inhabitants, whereas the average in the rest of the EU is only 4.6, he said.  

Remigijus Žaliūnas, Rector of LSMU, said, “After consolidating our research and studies potential we will climb to a higher level, becoming one of the strongest higher education institutions in the Baltics.”

“We are expecting that politicians will authorise the decision and finally set the processes in action,” Baršauskas said.