Historically, Pakistan has nurtured an interpretation of Islam based on Sufi philosophy, which has a reputation of being more tolerant and open-minded. Recent decades have, however, seen a rise in conservative Islam exported from Saudi Arabia; Sunni Wahhabism has become more common in Pakistan largely due to a socio-historical context which includes the 1970s oil crises, the 1979 Iranian revolution as well as the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. Petrodollars have given the Saudi kingdom the necessary resources to finance Wahhabi imperialism, the Iranian revolution has politicized Shia Muslims (who are seen as a threat by the Sunni), and the Afghan war has resulted in the creation of militarized Islam, supported and funded by the USA and Saudi Arabia. General Zia ul-Haq would then take power in Pakistan, and capitalize on Saudi support for the hardline Islamization of the country, a policy which has left a trail of sectarian Sunni / Shia violence in its wake.
Various interest-driven groups and communities emerge due to human creativity, creative efforts of individuals, contemporary information sharing culture and accumulation of knowledge through networking. Meanwhile, constant innovations give impetus to the development of societal life and its multiple dimensions. The greatest change in education brought by the new technologies, which are still becoming more and more social in their nature, is the emergence of the new paradigm, where the two – learning and teaching – processes have become one. Creativity cannot be separated from knowledge building in contemporary society. This article focuses on creativity in relation to networked learning/teaching and the development of deeper cognitive skills of students and draws on three viewpoints from contemporary research literature pertaining to the phenomenon of creativity: Czikszentmihalyi’s systems theory, the investment theory developed by Sternberg and Lubart and a group of viewpoints focusing on problem solving and finding. In relation to networked learning/teaching and the development of deeper cognitive skills at university level, creativity may be seen as related to critical literacy – critical reading and writing skills, analytical skills, ability to make judgements about texts, ability to create texts (printed, digital, visual, multimodal, etc.) as well as ability to apply the acquired information and skills in everyday life, work and task performance in order to implement changes in one’s social environment. In Web 2.0 era, the new social technologies supply multiple tools for creation, publication, assessment and critique. The tools are very important in education. Higher education institutions face the necessity to make use of the opportunities offered by the technologies so that they remain relevant for students, who need a range of skills to be successful in contemporary society: digital literacy, media literacy, critical literacy, collaboration and communication skills, unlearning old skills and re-learning new skills, i.e. what is often referred to as multiple literacies of the 21st century.
The objective of the research: to show the possibilities of developing entrepreneurship in university studies. The objective of the research is to show the possibilities of developing entrepreneurship in university studies. Students of MRU, VU, VGTU and LEU participated in the research. Research methods were the following: 1. Theoretical – analysis of scientific literature, analysis of EU and Lithuanian documents regulating entrepreneurship, analysis of study curriculum and strategic plans in MRU, VU, VGTU and LEU; 2. Empirical research – questionnaires for students about possibilities of developing entrepreneurship at university; 3. Statistical method – descriptive statistics. The results of the research. Having analyzed the data, the results showed that conceptions of entrepreneurship and its development do not differ in all 4 universities; they are the same in MRU, VU, VGTU and LEU. Students agree that it is a must to develop entrepreneurship in institutions of higher education but they do not know if such studies can be chosen in their curriculum. Also, they are not interested in the activities about developing entrepreneurship and have no idea if they are enterprising themselves. Students do not know if such a subject as developing entrepreneurship is present in their curriculum and if they can freely choose it themselves. Students would like to have developing entrepreneurship as a subject in their study curriculum which they would be able to choose freely by themselves. The results of the research have shown that entrepreneurship is best developed in MRU and VU. It is less developed in VGTU and the least developed in LEU.
The paper discusses the impact of development of knowledge economy to the universities’ activities, suggesting that providing the status of the product to the knowledge as the main field of activities of universities change not only the operating conditions of universities, but at the same time stress the meaningful contribution of universities to economic growth and social development. Changing conditions for delivery of universities’ practices encourage universities to become a part of a knowledge network as innovation agents to enhance cooperation with industry. Declining public resources, growing competition in the dissemination of knowledge in the scientific field stimulate universities’ entrepreneurship, application of their performance and results. All this justifies the idea of transformation of universities’ mission: from traditional universities’ functions, such as delivery of academic studies and scientific research, to dissemination of scientific knowledge, a traditional dissemination of scientific knowledge changes has been supplemented by application of scientific knowledge in collaboration with industry or for wellbeing of society. Contemporary changes taking place in universities consolidate the formation of the third mission of universities. The third mission of universities is based on the concept of an entrepreneurial university and the prominence of provided practical benefits of the universities’ activities. According to a theoretical approach, the third mission of universities is understood through the changes in the higher education systems associated with the fact that the traditional European higher education as a part of state-led social policy with a focus on meeting the social, cultural needs of society, creation of public resources changes because of growing importance of market ideology, neoliberalism, that reasons implementation of new public management in higher education. New public management stresses changing performance of universities toward practical applicability of scientific knowledge and meeting not only social needs of society, but market needs, as well.The article states that in 2009, when reform of Lithuanian national system of higher education made some corrections in the system of higher education funding, universities spurring competition created conditions for entrepreneurial universities. Changes in the system of higher education also made an impact to requirements of application of scientific results in study process, as well as meeting the needs and integration of various stakeholders into universities’ activities.The aim of the present research is to assess whether the reform of Lithuanian national higher education that started in 2009 had a mission to stress practical application of scientific knowledge, response to the market needs, and that are declared in official documents are integrated into requirements for national study programs (for preparation of documentation of newly created study programs and for the valuation of study programs). The task of the research is to analyse changes in national requirements and their correspondence with the main goals of reform of national higher education system.Regulatory documents were analyzed using qualitative content analysis and comparative methods. It was found that after 2009 Lithuanian national higher education reforms in the updated regulatory requirements for study programs there was manifested the requirement to provide arguments that showed accordance of study program with public interest and the employers’ needs. The research showed an increase of importance in focus on practical adaptability after 2009 national higher education reforms: in regulatory documents that existed till 2009 there were no intentions of integration of study process with stakeholders’ involvement that led toward meeting the needs of labor market and society. The study also revealed that in Lithuanian regulatory requirements for study programs – regulatory documents for proposal of newly developed study programs and in criteria for evaluation and accreditation of study programs – there has already been implemented a requirement of fulfilling practical applicability of the results and meeting the needs of employers that goes in a line with the third mission of universities stressing the practical benefit aspect of study programs. In the regulatory requirements for evaluation and accreditation of study programs, there are more substantially presented requirements for fulfilling practical applicability of study results in relation with needs of labor market and this requirement goes with a highlight of the role of the social partners in development and implementation of study program.
The principle of loyal cooperation established in the EU law obliges the courts of the Member States of the EU to ensure the effective judicial protection of rights of persons stemming from the EU law. In the absence of harmonized norms of the civil procedure at the EU level, national courts are procedurally autonomous in enforcing judicial protection of the above mentioned rights, however, in applying national laws they shall comply with principles of equivalence and effectiveness of the EU law. In cases concerning violation of rights stemming from the EU law, courts of the Member States are faced with applications for the indication of provisional measures necessary to ensure effective judicial protection. The European Court of Justice treats such provisional measures as an integral part of the right to effective judicial protection. Compliance with the principle of effective judicial protection of the EU law requires national laws to guarantee the right to obtain provisional measures before national courts. In the light of the case law of the European Court of Justice, two situations where application of provisional measures may be granted by national judges shall be distinguished: (i) the first case concerns the suspension of the application of national laws incompatible with EU law pending decision on such compatibility, and (ii) the second one deals with the suspension of application of national measures implementing EU legal acts pending the decision on validity of such EU legal act. Under the first type of situations, national courts shall apply procedural guarantees embodied in the national laws. Under the second one, the ECJ has spelled out minimum uniform conditions making judicial protection effective: national procedural rules shall satisfy the principle of equivalence and the principle of effectiveness. In practice, a problem is frequently faced when such kind of provisional measures in not expressis verbis embodied in the text of national law. This hinders the right of the parties concerned to make use of such provisional measures significantly. Such hindrances limit the right of the parties concerned to effective judicial protection and may lead to violation of the EU law. For instance, The Code of Civil Procedure of Lithuania does not provide for special rules concerning suspension of national legal provisions in the above-mentioned situations. However, bearing in mind that the Court of Justice recognized the right to obtain interim measures before national courts to be an integral part of the EU concept of direct, immediate and effective judicial protection, national court should have the right to grant such provisional measures. Therefore, it is submitted that it would be appropriate for the national legislator of Lithuania to resolve the question on filling this gap in national legal system.
