For now, the government refuses to merge Vilnius Gediminas Technical University (VGTU) and Mykolas Romeris (MRU) universities, because these universities do not agree on the conditions of consolidation.
On Wednesday, the Government approved the proposal of the Ministry of Education, Science and Sports to completely refuse the connection of MRU to VGTU for the time being. Previously, it was considered that the consolidation could take place by 2022 if the universities agreed on the terms.
"Further negotiations on the consolidation of universities are ineffective," Vice Minister of Education Valdemar Razum said at the meeting.
The Cabinet of Ministers also approved the intention to concentrate all VGTU faculties in Saulėtekis, the capital's student campus.
Instead, the resolution proposes to "optimize VGTU by concentrating the potential of technology sciences in the VGTU Saulėtekios campus". Currently, the university's faculties are located in various parts of the capital, apart from Saulėtekis.
"The optimization of VGTU will be implemented from the funds received from the sale of faculty buildings on Naugarduks and J. Basanavičiaus streets. The investments were approved by the agreement of the Ministry of Education, Science and Sports and VGTU", the resolution states.
The government had delayed the merger of the two universities until the end of 2022 in September, with the universities asking for a longer transition period as well as more funding.
The representatives of ŠMSM say that the merger is not completely abandoned, only that it was decided to postpone the process "for a later time", although there is no such wording in the document.
Author Ignas Jačauskas
