Meet our PhD students
Lina Zenkienė
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Background I am a PhD candidate at ICHEM. I have come to the University of Bath from Klaipėda, Lithuania. I hold a BA in Business/English from LCC International University (Lithuania) and a MEd from Rutgers University, USA. In my master’s studies I focused on higher education management and comparative policy studies. I conducted a qualitative evaluation of a pilot online business education programme involving seven universities from five different countries. My major research paper was a comparative study of lifelong learning policies and systems in Lithuania, the USA, and Sweden. In between and after my formal educational endeavours, I have also participated in a number of continuing education activities related to higher education policy debates and reforms at e.g. Stockholm School of Economics, University of Twente, Central European University. I have visited a number of institutions, both academic and policy-making, tertiary and non-formal throughout Europe and North and Central America in my ongoing study and research on the interaction of higher education policy and practice. In the past, I managed to combine my continuous interest in how higher education institutions function with my work. Prior to coming to Bath, I worked as an academic administrator and manager at the international university in Lithuania. When I started my work, the university was very young, and I had the opportunity and privilege to engage in various institutional development tasks and projects including undergraduate programme self-review processes, internal policies and structure developments, strategic planning, and EU policy dissemination and implementation. My personal and professional interest into the quality of education led me to explorations of quality in higher education and the management processes needed to effectively address change and pursue excellence. In relation to that I have been engaged in a couple of joint research projects as well as presented studies on management issues, quality in higher education, implementation of higher education reform at national and international venues. Research interests My research interests lie in organizational studies, more specifically in organizational learning and change, knowledge transfer, internationalization and quality of higher education. My PhD research will focus on the impact of collaborative engagements on institutional quality enhancement. Research projects/presentations A development of a model for Lithuanian higher education institutions’ students and staff international placements/professional development (in progress). (Lietuvos aukštųjų mokyklų studentų ir dėstytojų tarptautinių praktikų/stažuočių vykdymo modelio sukūrimas). European Higher Education Society, paper presented at the 31st forum (2009): The Understanding of the Bologna Process in Lithuanian Higher Education. Higher Education Management conference (2002) in Vilnius, Lithuania. Paper presented: “A case study of LCC: management of a private university”. Higher Education Quality /Present and Future/ conference (2001) in Vilnius, Lithuania. Paper presented: “The quality of studies and private universities: ways and opportunities”. |