QUALITY MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS IN LITHUANIAN COLLEGES: WEBSITES INFORMATION ANALYSIS

Activity questions of non university schools (colleges) are becoming very relevant in Lithuania. Having in mind, that binary higher education system functions in the country – the demand rises to properly and adequately understand education quality provided by universities and colleges, the educational specifics provided by every institution. Both universities and colleges declare the goals of carrying out qualitative studies and providing qualitative education. However, declaration is one thing, and real results – another. College activity quality control evaluation is becoming the main political and practical attitude. Quality management systems (QMS) in Lithuanian colleges have been started to implement without having a clear conception and basically keeping up with the political requirements. On the other hand, QMS is tried to be shown as an advantage over the colleges competing both with universities and among each other. It is likely, that this process is inconsistent, the goals of implementing such systems are not clear, the information presented publicly is very often contradictory and incomplete. There is lack of experience in quality management sphere. Information analysis research has been carried out. During the research, data was analysed, presented in college networking websites, and their produced QMS documents. The information was analysed in October and November, 2014. Websites of all colleges (13 state and 10 non state) working in Lithuania were analysed and the documents, presented in them. The research allowed to more exhaustively and accurately evaluating, what is the situation in non university higher school QMS sphere at the moment, what information about QMS can be available for the society in the college networking websites. The distinguished QMS situation of state and non state colleges allows comparing whether the actions of private and state colleges differ. The research revealed that most of the colleges present the information about the QMS; however, the information is often not systemised, presented in separate college activity documents. Looking in perspective, one can think that a priority attention will be devoted to quality management questions in Lithuanian colleges, QMS will acquire much bigger importance, and the effectiveness of their functioning will be checked constantly. It is hopeful, that quality improvement will acquire more realistic than declarative character.