Nacionaliniai ir tarptautiniai aukštojo mokslo ir studijų interesai Pirmosios Lietuvos Respublikos laikotarpiu
National and Transnational Scientific and Educational Interests in the Period of the First Republic of Lithuania

Summary/Abstract: In the apogee of nationalism, i.e. in the period following World War I marked by the creation of the nation state of Lithuania, at first the establishment of national Vilnius University and later the founding of the University of Lithuania were seen as a government priority goal associated with the consolidation of the underlying elements of the nation state. The aim and originality of the article, which is based on the methods of document and comparative analysis, lie in the attempt to divide the policy of science and higher education in the first Republic of Lithuania into stages and define them through the inquiry into national and transnational scientific and educational interests posed by politicians in creation of the nation state of Lithuania and international correlations in favour of higher education in Lithuania searched out in the European sphere. The article raises several questions. First, did the politicians manage to escape ethnocentrism and remain unbiased in science and education-related issues or were state and national interests predominant in the sphere of science and education? Second, what was the role played by the active position of the society which pursued conformity of science and education with contemporary European standards? Third, to what extent professors and scholars were able to participate in the European academic life? The author of the article divides science and higher education policy in the first Republic of Lithuania into fourth main stages. The first stage is related to the establishment of the Lithuanian Vilnius University and covers the period of the German occupation starting from autumn of 1915 and ending in the beginning of 1919. Two different conceptions and strategies of the Lithuanian Vilnius University developed by politicians may be distinguished at this stage. The first conception involved the founding of a secular and autonomous Vilnius University, open to national minorities, whereas the second conception favoured a national Catholic Vilnius University with limited rights of self-rule. Supporters of the first strategy suggested that the opening of the national Vilnius University was rescheduled and the required specialists were educated at foreign universities. Proponents of the second strategy requested immediate opening of the Lithuanian Vilnius University as the country was lacking of well-qualified specialists and foreign universities were unable to educate sufficient numbers of civil servants and economy specialists of various levels; the second stage covers the period from 1919 marked by the loss of Vilnius and its region and the possibility to re-establish Vilnius University by the opening of the University of Lithuania on 16 February 1922. This stage is characterised by the divergence of opinions expressed by political parties, governments, and the academic society regarding higher education in Lithuania. Governments and political parties agreed to put on hold the establishment of the

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