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Over the last decade the issues concerning higher education quality and its assurance have become very important in European countries therefore the aim of this article is to carry out a comparative analysis of conditions that determined introduction of accreditation process in Western and Central / Eastern European countries and to discuss Lithuania's case. Methods: literature analysis, document analysis, causative – comparative analysis. First of all the experience of European countries in the field of introduction of higher education accreditation is analysed. In the second part the influence of Bologna process on the expansion of accreditation process is presented. In the second part Lithuania's case is discussed. The conclusions are presented in the end of the article. Having analysed the experience of European countries in the field of higher education quality assurance, it can be stated that Western and Central / Eastern European countries chose different ways and time for introduction of accreditation process because of different political, social, and cultural situations. The demand for accreditation procedures gained extreme importance in Europe after the acceptance of The Bologna declaration. Nevertheless quality assurance was not the strong point of Bologna declaration, further documents of this process and its initiated reforms filled in the gap paying enormous attention to the aspects of quality and naming accreditation as one of the possible ways to assure quality Lithuania adopted accreditation together with most Central / Eastern European countries during the first generation of implementation of accreditation mechanisms.

Over the last decade the issues concerning higher education quality and its assurance have become very important in European countries therefore the aim of this article is to carry out a comparative analysis of conditions that determined introduction of accreditation process in Western and Central / Eastern European countries and to discuss Lithuania's case. Methods: literature analysis, document analysis, causative – comparative analysis. First of all the experience of European countries in the field of introduction of higher education accreditation is analysed. In the second part the influence of Bologna process on the expansion of accreditation process is presented. In the second part Lithuania's case is discussed. The conclusions are presented in the end of the article. Having analysed the experience of European countries in the field of higher education quality assurance, it can be stated that Western and Central / Eastern European countries chose different ways and time for introduction of accreditation process because of different political, social, and cultural situations. The demand for accreditation procedures gained extreme importance in Europe after the acceptance of The Bologna declaration. Nevertheless quality assurance was not the strong point of Bologna declaration, further documents of this process and its initiated reforms filled in the gap paying enormous attention to the aspects of quality and naming accreditation as one of the possible ways to assure quality Lithuania adopted accreditation together with most Central / Eastern European countries during the first generation of implementation of accreditation mechanisms.

The main aim of this work is to determine what problems of realization the academic community perceives. The system of realization trends was projected in the state education strategy enacted on the 4th of July in 2003 by Parliament. It is paid attention to the calibre, the management culture and the opportunity to learn all the life. There are five the realization trends of state education strategy: the management, the infrastructure, the support, the content and the personnel. The analysis of the research shows that the finance of higher education, the modernization of teaching, the present learning load of students which belongs to the implementation of information technology are the main trends of state education strategy. The finances of a state will be introduced in 2009 which will offset the best part expenses of students learning. The educational institution should have to help persons to gain the qualification which should meet the requirements of these days and satisfy modern technology.

The main aim of this work is to determine what problems of realization the academic community perceives. The system of realization trends was projected in the state education strategy enacted on the 4th of July in 2003 by Parliament. It is paid attention to the calibre, the management culture and the opportunity to learn all the life. There are five the realization trends of state education strategy: the management, the infrastructure, the support, the content and the personnel. The analysis of the research shows that the finance of higher education, the modernization of teaching, the present learning load of students which belongs to the implementation of information technology are the main trends of state education strategy. The finances of a state will be introduced in 2009 which will offset the best part expenses of students learning. The educational institution should have to help persons to gain the qualification which should meet the requirements of these days and satisfy modern technology.

The changing of content and forms of civil service training and education in the public sector is analysed in the article. In the modern society, the role of the public institution staff in the planning and implementation of the strategic activities of the institutions has increased dramatically. The personnel management content of "putting out the fires" no longer meets the needs of the modern organization. The development of the capacities of civil servants is one of the directions in state administrative reform as well as one of the main conditions for effective public sector activities. It is possible to say that the existing training of civil servants in Lithuania is more extensive, based on personal motivation. However the latter does not always coincide with institutional interests. The largest obstacle in effective civil servants training is insufficient capacity of the institutional personnel system of public administration. Although personnel units carry out the analysis of the needs of qualification training the functions of training process and career planning are implemented insufficiently. The staff of personnel management boards in state and municipal institutions is not adequate, and unable to carry mentioned functions while existing public administration institutions cannot administrate the processes of qualification assurance properly. ; Straipsnyje analizuojami valstybės viešosios politikos tikslai ir uždaviniai modernizuojant valstybės tarnybą bei personalo valdymo turinio ir formų pokyčiai. Išskirtinis dėmesys straipsnyje skiriamas viešojo sektoriaus personalo kvalifikacijos ugdymo poreikiams nustatyti, lavinimo proceso struktūrai tobulinti ir lavinimo institucijų ištekliams efektyviau panaudoti.

The scientific problem of dissertation: how to evaluate the impact of higher education funding models on access to higher education. The higher education funding models, funding methods, theoretical aspects of access to higher education, the methodologies for evaluating the impact of higher education funding models on access to higher education are analyzed, the advantages and disadvantages of the applied evaluation methods are determined. A new research methodology is used to evaluate the impact of higher education funding models on access to higher education in the context of EU countries and in the groups of countries, which apply different higher education funding models based on cost-sharing. EU countries are grouped into four higher education funding models based on economic indicators relevant to higher education funding, using cluster analysis. A panel data analysis method (fixed effects model) is used for the impact evaluation. The results of the dissertation show that higher education funding models by cost-sharing (i.e., low tuition-high-subsidy; low-tuition-lowsubsidy; high tuition-low-subsidy; high-tuition-high-subsidy higher education funding models) have a different statistically significant impact on access to higher education. Besides, EU countries, that apply a high-tuitionhigh-subsidy higher education funding model, provide better results of gender equality as well as better represent low (middle) socio-economic status students in higher education, in comparison to other EU countries, that use other higher education funding models.

The scientific problem of dissertation: how to evaluate the impact of higher education funding models on access to higher education. The higher education funding models, funding methods, theoretical aspects of access to higher education, the methodologies for evaluating the impact of higher education funding models on access to higher education are analyzed, the advantages and disadvantages of the applied evaluation methods are determined. A new research methodology is used to evaluate the impact of higher education funding models on access to higher education in the context of EU countries and in the groups of countries, which apply different higher education funding models based on cost-sharing. EU countries are grouped into four higher education funding models based on economic indicators relevant to higher education funding, using cluster analysis. A panel data analysis method (fixed effects model) is used for the impact evaluation. The results of the dissertation show that higher education funding models by cost-sharing (i.e., low tuition-high-subsidy; low-tuition-lowsubsidy; high tuition-low-subsidy; high-tuition-high-subsidy higher education funding models) have a different statistically significant impact on access to higher education. Besides, EU countries, that apply a high-tuitionhigh-subsidy higher education funding model, provide better results of gender equality as well as better represent low (middle) socio-economic status students in higher education, in comparison to other EU countries, that use other higher education funding models.