As the Vilnius Gediminas Technical University (VGTU) and Mykolas Romeris (MRU) universities do not agree on the conditions of consolidation, the Ministry of Education, Science and Sports suggests abandoning the plans to merge these higher education institutions for the time being.
It is also proposed to concentrate all VGTU faculties in Saulėtekis, the capital's student campus.
If the government approves the project presented by the ministry next week, the connection of MRU to VGTU would be completely abandoned for the time being.
Instead, the project 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 project states.
Back in September, the government delayed the merger of the two higher education institutions until the end of 2022, with the universities asking for a longer transition period as well as more funding.
"In view of this, it was decided to postpone the implementation of this process for a later time. In addition, state financing was planned for the merger of these universities, but if the aforementioned process does not take place, it can be assumed that it will be appropriate not to wait any longer and use the funds for other important works", Minister Algirdas Monkevičius' press representative Kęstutis Butvydas told BNS.
Author: Ignas Jačauskas
