Education

Joint doctoral studies with the Lithuanian Sports University, Šiauliai University (from 2021 – Vilnius University Šiauliai Academy). Coordinating institution: Lithuanian Sports University.

Educational research provided by the team is based on the contemporary approach to education and learning, as well as on the using the best Lithuanian and world-wide pedagogical traditions. The team understands well that the boundaries of the discipline of Education have already broadened. The educational researchers focus not only on young generation’s and adults‘ formal, informal, non-formal education and learning, social education and education management, issues related to higher education but also on modern educational technologies, educational and learning environments and other issues related to educational innovations. Research is also carried out in the fields of employees‘ organizational learning in knowledge organizations, learning communities, development of learning cities and regions in terms of educational and learning challenges they face.

Having more than 50 years of experience and well known for preparing more than 100 PhDs who have knowledge of modern education, a team of researchers in Educational Science from Kaunas University of Technology is a recognised Centre of excellence in the field in Lithuania.

The high quality of doctoral studies is ensured not only by contribution in research projects on the most relevant topics nowadays but also by an active collaboration with the academics from University of Cambridge (United Kingdom), University of Haifa (Israel), California State University, Fullerton (USA) and others. Doctoral students participate in Erasmus+ exchanges that enable them to be active in an academic field on an international scale.

Topic title	Possible scientific supervisors	Source of funding
Curriculum development for effective learning in EMI environment	prof. dr. Jolita Horbačauskienė	state-funded	Research Topic Summary. Attracting international students, teachers and researchers from all over the world is becoming an important task for modern universities to become internationally competitive (Hsu, 2023; Block & Moncada-Comas, 2022; Costa & Coleman, 2013). In this context, English-medium instruction (EMI) degree programmes or modules (Macaro et al., 2017) are becoming particularly important in raising the international profile of universities and thus their academic prestige. In non-English-speaking environments, as Rose et al. (2019) argue, one of the benefits of EMI, in addition to improving English language proficiency, is preparing students for international contexts. It is important to note that in the context of EMI, the language of instruction is not the object of learning (Coleman, 2006; Dafouz, 2018), but is an important factor in the achievement of the learning outcomes of the subject under study, i.e. instrumentality (English as a tool for teaching) is not as significant as the mastery of the content of the subject under study (Roquet et al., 2019). Various studies (Aizawa, 2023; Dafouz et al., 2014) have analysed the relationship between content mastery and academic achievement without focusing on learning processes. This dissertation proposes to investigate how students use deep-level strategies such as elaboration, organisation and critical thinking to master content knowledge in an EMI setting, analysing the relationship of these strategies with students' English level and motivation.
Academic Resilience in Virtual Educational Environments: The Role of Instructional Design	vyr.m.d. dr. Rasa Erentaitė	state-funded	Research Topic Summary. On average, students from socially, economically, and culturally (SEC) disadvantaged backgrounds achieve lower academic results than their peers from more advantaged backgrounds, and this gap is growing in many countries worldwide (Chmielewski, 2019). However, some students from disadvantaged backgrounds demonstrate similar or even higher results than their peers. This group of students is called "academically resilient“ (Agasisti et al., 2018), while academic resilience is understood as the ability of students to overcome obstacles that usually hinder learning processes and results. Research examining academic resilience is very important for the improvement of the educational environment, as it helps to answer the question - what enables students to achieve high academic results, despite the unfavorable SEC conditions. Research on academic resilience has mostly been carried out in traditional learning settings, so for now very little is known about how students from disadvantaged backgrounds fare in virtual educational environments. Some insights on this question are offered by the studies from the period of the Covid-19 pandemic (e.g., Engzell et al., 2021; Erentaitė et al., 2023a; Erentaitė et al., 2023b), however, they are insufficient to generalize the results to other student cohorts. It is also important to assess which factors of the virtual educational environment are key in enabling the success of students from disadvantaged backgrounds. This dissertation topic proposes to study the factors of academic resilience in the virtual educational environment, thereby making a significant contribution to one of the main goals of the modern education system - social justice.

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Application procedure

Mandatory documents for admission:

Application to KTU Rector
two recommendations of scientists in the field of educational sciences with a habilitated doctoral or doctoral degree of science
Curriculum vitae (handed in signed)
The diploma of the master’s degree or the diploma attesting to the corresponding qualification, its annex / appendix and copies of these documents
A supplement to the diploma of the first, second or single-stage higher education institution (optional) or a certificate issued by a licensed center for foreign languages indicating the grade of a foreign language (English, French, German) and copies of these documents
A list of the research papers of the doctoral student (a full bibliographic description is provided) and their prints, if any (accompanied by copies of the cover and content of the publication); accepted works for the press are submitted with a certificate from the editor of the publication about the accepted press article (after the review procedure); for those who have completed postgraduate studies in this calendar year, a copy of the master’s thesis (if any)
Certificates of presentations read, about work at scientific conferences, if any
One photograph measuring 3 x 4 cm
A copy of the receipt of the entrance tuition fees paid to the account of KTU in the bank or certified copies of documents proving the right not to pay the entrance tuition fee
Documents confirming the change of name, if not all the documents submitted are under the same name
A copy of the personal data page of the passport or a copy of the identity card

Cycle	Third cycle
Language	Lithuanian, English
Duration	4 y.
Degree awarded	Doctor of Science

Publications	0,25
Scientific experience	0,15
Weighted average of the grades indicated in the Annex to the Diploma of Completion of Master’s or Single-Stage Higher Education (including the assessment of the final thesis, if any)	0,25
Grade of a foreign language (English, French, German) indicated in the supplement to the diploma of the first, second or single-stage higher education institution (optional) or in the certificate issued by the licensed center for foreign languages	0,1
Assessment of the motivational interview for admission to the doctoral program	0,25

Education

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Research topics

Research Topic Summary.

Research Topic Summary.

Entry requirements

Minimum requirements

Application procedure

Selection criteria and their weighted coefficients

Study programme modules

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