(257)LEAN HIGHER EDUCATION: OPPORTUNITIES AND LIMITATIONS

摘要

During the last decade researchers and practitioners are increasingly more involved in a discussion onlean model application in different organizational settings. Contemporary environment of highereducation institutions is becoming challenging and many universities confront the problems offluctuating support from the state. There is a growing trend to view higher education not as a societalgood but as personal choice, therefore the number of students also fluctuates. The society demandsgreater public accountability for the money invested, also some business and political leaders seehigher education simply as training for the job [4]. Recent changes to university funding fromgovernment in Lithuania, demographical situation (decreasing number of graduates from highschools), and relatively high number of higher education institutions raise the challenge to theauthorities of higher education institutions of how to improve quality not only in the study programs butin overall management and how not to heighten but even to reduce the costs of education andresearch. In this context, attempts have been made to transfer lean principles and practice to thehigher education sector. The main idea of lean is the emphasis on the value, which is defined by thecustomer. This is in high contradiction to traditional concept of the higher education institution. Fromthe worldwide perspective, it can be noted that results of adapting lean model in higher educationinstitutions are very diverse [2], [5], [13]. A mainstream prescriptive discourse suggests that lean isdiffusing into higher education environments, providing a much-needed rethink of traditional ways ofworking and stimulating radical performance improvements. However, extension of lean principles tohigher education was not so widespread and fast as it could be expected taking into consideration thedevelopment of commodification in various spheres of the society. Purpose of the article is to evaluatethe opportunities and limitations of lean in higher education on the basis of analysis of theoretical andempirical works relating to lean application in higher education institutions and also on the basis of theexperience of study program leaders applying lean methods in the process of improving the quality ofstudies. Research is based on the analysis of theoretical assumptions, secondary data and cases ofapplication of lean principles in higher education institutions.