Dear Colleagues and Partners,

On 22 December, with 59 MPs voting in favour, 9 against and 27 abstentions, the Seimas adopted amendments to the Law on Education (draft No XIIP-3375(2) legitimating compulsory pre-school education for children.

Lithuanian schools of general education hosting refugees should receive 30% more money for their education, as compared to the education of other children.

By striving for higher quality research and studies Lithuanian Academia embarks upon the inevitable: concentration of potential from the top universities in the country. Mutual input towards a better quality future for Lithuanian youth is being carried by ISM University of Management and Economics and its new controlling interest holder Kaunas University of Technology (KTU). Contract will take force after it is approved by the Competition Council of the Republic of Lithuania.

On the 15th of December, Vilnius Gediminas Technical University (VGTU) students, sitting in VGTU classroom, were listening to a real-time lecture, delivered by a professor from Kobe University in Japan.

On 31th of October, massive open online course (MOOC) on Digital and Social Media Marketing started, allowing anyone, who wanted to improve their knowledge of digital marketing, to enrol. Today it is nominated for Northern Digital Awards 2016 for the success with student recruitment to the course.

Last week autumn semester's Multilingual Lithuania language learning project ended. More than 13 languages were taught, and around 300 Lithuanian and 30 international KTU students attended the lectures taught by their fellow students.

Professor Saulius Klimašauskas, the chief researcher of the Vilnius University Biotechnology Institute was awarded with the membership of the Royal Society of Chemistry (RPC). The new list of members is to be announced in the British newspaper The Times.

His Excellency Professor Dr Bomer Pasaribu, the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Indonesia in Lithuania was on his visit at Vilnius Gediminas Technical University (VGTU) yesterday.

The campus of Vilnius University at Saulėtekio Avenue was recently expanded by a new building of the Joint Life Sciences Centre (JLSC) covering the total area of 24 thousand square meters.