News

October 4-8th #VUBS students participated in the first Erasmus BIP – Blended Intensive Programme, where they spent a week in Rotterdam! #VUBS Team consisted of 7 members who come from Lithuania, Australia, India and Belarus!

One of the participants Iryna Pranovich shares her experience with us:

"Have you ever considered switching to plant-based meat or simply being a flexitarian?

Reduction of consumption of animal-based meat is good for sustainability, animals, and even your health, but what does stop you from it?

Availability? Price? Your meat-eating friends?

Students of 29 nationalities from 3 Universities, including representatives of Vilnius university Business School, spent 5 days in Rotterdam, taking part in lectures and workshops, practicing design thinking and formulating Jobs To Be Done, to help Unilever team and their The Vegetarian Butcher product to gain more attention and trust.

During the first days, students got familiar with the brand and their business problem via meetings with team members of Unilever, gained background about the food industry, and got ready to propose a solution to discovered problems. In the middle of the week, the whole activity moved to Rotterdam city, where participants ran rounds of human research interviews to uncover pain and gains of current or prospective customers, using knowledge gained during corresponding workshops.

10 teams were brainstorming ideas and preparing media materials for the final day of the programme. Each team had a business coach, who helped to take a step from idea to the solution. The goal was to develop and justify a solution together with a poster and video presentation to be ready to present and pitch it to members of Unilever team on Friday. During final day of the programme teams presented posters and pitch it to jury members form Unilever & The Vegetarian Butcher. Only 4 out of 10 teams made it to the finals, where video presentations and another round of pitches and Q&A took place.

Overall it was valuable experience in terms of practical knowledge in multunational environment, building international connections, woking under real-life problem within very short time. Hopefully these solutions will help to bring more and more people into more sustainable way of living, including their food preferences, care more about animals and health."

Thanks to Iryna for sharing!
The second part of the project will be held in the near future.

Dear members of #VUBS community,

Due to the rapidly deteriorating epidemiological situation and the growing number of diseases in the country, infections in the close environment and in order to ensure the safety of students, teachers and administrative staff. There was made a decision to organize studies remotely from the 11^th of October.

After active consultations with the VU BS community, the decision on the further study organization model at VU BS will be prepared by October 25th.

If you do not have suitable conditions for learning at home or in the dormitory, please inform us - we will create conditions for studying in the auditoriums of the Business School. For this, please fill out the registration form: https://forms.office.com/r/1swvrPeMEK

More information about distance learning, necessary tools and other relevant information can be found here: https://www.vu.lt/covid-19/studentams

Since the European Commission aims to strengthen research and education institutions' innovation and entrepreneurship potential over the next few years, 23 consortia from 32 countries were selected through a call for proposals launched by The European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT). One of the chosen institutions - Vilnius University (VU), will implement the UNIcorn project in cooperation with a consortium of international partners, which aims to develop technology transfer processes in science and study institutions and strengthen entrepreneurship education.

A broader goal of this project is to strengthen the capacity of research and study institutions operating in the Baltic region to commercialize research and innovation-based solutions and to develop entrepreneurship and partnerships with business enterprises. Kristina Babelytė-Labanauskė, head of VU Innovation Office and UNIcorn project leader believes that involvement of VU in the activities of the EIT opens up new opportunities for more effective integration into the knowledge and innovation communities and strengthens research-business partnerships.

“UNIcorn project, which involves ecosystems and various partners of the project participants, will contribute to strengthening the so-called "third mission" of universities. Therefore, alongside traditional university objectives - studies and research – the university’s social and economic role in addressing societal challenges will be strengthened when collaborating with local or regional university ecosystem partners. This presumably will contribute to the development of high value-added state or region’s economy in the Baltic states”, K. Babelytė-Labanauskė highlights.

Prof. Dr Saulė Mačiukaitė-Žvinienė, head of Entrepreneurship and innovation development at VU Business School, believes that this initiative of the European Commission will lay a solid foundation for the development of such culture not only in VU, but also throughout the country.

“The main goal of VU Business School is to increase the competencies required for the development of entrepreneurship and innovations, therefore we are happy to contribute to this project. Ensuring sustainable ecosystem between research and business, integration of global science commercialization practices into the university, research-based strategic decisions facilitating Lithuania's economic competitiveness must be natural goal with wide range of activities for university. I believe that,” Prof. Dr. S. Mačiukaitė-Žvinienė says.

VU implements UNIcorn project together with Tallinn University of Technology, Tallinn University, University of Tartu, Stockholm School of Economics in Riga and TECNALIA Research & Innovation. A total of 135 higher education institutions will participate in this European Commission initiative, with a budget of almost € 28 million for strengthening the innovation capacity of higher education across Europe.

The EIT’s HEI Initiative is a key objective for the EIT as part of its new strategy, the EIT Strategic Innovation Agenda 2021−2027. The initiative aims to support higher education institutions with expertise and coaching, access to the EIT innovation ecosystem, and funding, enabling them to develop innovation action plans complementing the needs of individual higher education institutions. As part of its Pilot Phase, the initiative has provided funding to 23 projects, with the next call for proposals expected towards the end of 2021.

The European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT) strengthens Europe’s ability to innovate by powering solutions to pressing global challenges and by nurturing entrepreneurial talent to create sustainable growth and skilled jobs in Europe. The EIT is an EU body and an integral part of Horizon Europe, the EU Framework Programme for Research and Innovation. The Institute supports dynamic pan-European partnerships, EIT Knowledge and Innovation Communities, among leading companies, research labs and universities.

Some of the most important things that VU Library aims to provide are services that meet the needs of all its users, comfortable and user-friendly environment and qualified informational support. In striving to get to know its users better and satisfy their expectations as well as ensure library services of even higher quality, the opinion on the quality and the variety of the provided services is of the utmost importance.

Therefore, we kindly ask all users of the library to fill in a LibQUAL questionnaire and share their opinions on what improvements are necessary for VU Library and their view on provided services – starting from the scope of resources, quality of the service and ending with offered study spaces and atmosphere. By sharing your views, you will help the library to improve and create the space where every member of our community would feel comfortable.

Artificial intelligence, genetic engineering, electromobiles or quantum computers are the next generation technology innovations the world is focusing on today. They change not only industry, but also the lives of each of us and future generations. The need for specialists able to operate in the dynamic business environment and implement research-based innovations is growing. To this end Vilnius University (VU) Business School in conjunction with the European Nuclear Research Organization (CERN), one of the world’s largest scientific research organizations, will offer Deeptech Entrepreneurship, a unique Master’s Degree programme in the Baltic countries, in the next academic year.

“VU Business School, together with CERN, scientists in the field of physics, mathematics and computer science, and business professionals, open up new perspectives. Our aim is to transform the traditional mindset and build an innovative culture that combines business, technology and leadership. VU is just the place where a culture of innovation based on values marries entrepreneurship and leading technological solutions. I believe that it is in this programme that the future business unicorns will start their rich and exciting journey,” Programme Manager Prof. Saulė Mačiukaitė-Žvinienė, said.

Dear MBA students, alumni, lecturers,

We would like to invite you to MBA Entrepreneurship online Networking Event on February 26^th (by invitation only).

We are very happy to have as a guest speaker Milda Mitkutė – Co-founder of Vinted – Lithuania’s first unicorn!

Let’s build MBA community all together!

Dear Graduates,

Today I am very proud to say to you, with the VU Business School’s entire community, welcome to our graduates’ community! It is indeed a solemn and joyful moment — for your family, friends, you and also our community, because you are the ones that faced many challenges caused by the pandemic with remote learning, social distance and online defense of your thesis.

We would love to hug you and shake your hand in a live graduation ceremony, alas for a while it’s impossible to do, but we really hope to see you in the summer at VU Business School 5^th anniversary party, if we will be allowed to celebrate all together.

We would like to invite you to contribute to the development and enhancement of our Business School community by sharing your experience and telling your success stories to our students and participants of the Entrepreneurship Academy. Or maybe you would consider an opportunity to offer your own topic or business case for the final thesis or project? Join VU Business School alumni community and become a real ambassador of Business School!  

Congratulations on the well-deserved success! We wish you much inspiration, creativity and keep the desire to learn!

Kindest regards,

Dr. Birutė Miškinienė

Director of VU Business School

Vilnius University Business School has successfully completed its participation in the project The Baltic Sea Underground Innovation Network (BSUIN). During the project, an association uniting European underground laboratories was established, a network of underground mines and laboratories in the Baltic Sea region was developed, and their opportunities for business and innovation were analyzed. Various researches and analyzes of the business environment and development opportunities have been carried out in these underground mines. The project was judged to be extremely successful, so its extension was approved with even more ambitious goals.

"This project has been going on for more than two years and has brought really great results, we believe that the work done together will contribute to greater business and scientific cooperation, new opportunities for innovation and development of the Baltic region. The project is also unique because while participating in it the Business School has expanded its network of international partners and established extremely strong and reliable relationships. We can already be happy with the new cooperation ideas and projects that we are starting to implement. We believe that this will bring a lot of benefits to the community of the Business School and the entire University, ”says VU Business School Director Dr. Birutė Miškinienė.

VU Business School is currently looking for:

- Professor (Innovation Management)
- Associate professor (Business Finance)
- Assistant Professor (Business, Entrepreneurship)
- Assistant Professor (Human Resources Management)
- Lecturer (Intercultural Communication)

Deadline for document submission: 8 March 2021.

For further inquiries, please contact our Academic staff coordinator Danutė Rasimavičienė ()

University internships are an inseparable part of the study process, allowing students to acquire practical skills in a real professional environment. The main focus for VU Business school regarding this process has always been quality: "In order to recruit students into high quality internship sites, we negotiate with representatives of various companies. Therefore, we recruit our responsible, creative, and entrepreneurial students, seeking to gain experience and develop new competencies, with reliable partners only," says S. Vileito, the VU Business school representative. This year, students of the International Business program have completed an obligatory internship in the following areas:

• Sales
• Human Resources
• Accounting
• Business Development
• Logistics Administration
• Marketing
• Project Management
• Product Development
• Individual business/family business

Areas chosen by Business Finance program students for obligatory internship:

• Audit of financial projects
• Accounting
• Data analytics
• Financial business consulting
• Business loans
• Audit

Representatives of companies also shared their experience about VU Business school interns:

“Representative of VU Business school for the internship process carefully selects internship sites for students and successfully manages the internship process by constantly maintaining communication between the two parties. I am delighted by such a responsible attitude of the faculty towards both the company and the trainee. I would like to express my joy since the faculty recommended our agency such an excellent intern who now sucessfully joined our team for further partnership. Thank you VU Business School for collaboration! “- R. Čekaitė, Head of “ADFACE” agency.

“We are happy for having the opportunity to provide the necessary space for VU Business school students to put University knowledge into practice. When inviting students to do internship in our company, we emphasize the freedom of initiative,  leadership, decision making and taking the responsibility for the final result. We are now convinced that VU Business School students, applying for the internship in our company, become our partners, whom we not only educate, but also learn from”, - D. Bražinskas, Head of ,,GSP Supply“

This years’ internship defenses as a whole study process has been held online, but that did not prevent students from presenting their experiences and reports successfully. Students’ professional development has been evaluated by the jury remotely as well.

Online applications for 2021/22 admission are open from 1 January 2021.

The deadlines for applications are:

1 June for applicants from non-EU/EEA countries and all applicants to Medicine and/or Dentistry study programmes.

15 July for applicants that are not required to obtain a national visa for arrival to Lithuania, as well as for non-EU/EEA applicants with Lithuanian Embassies in their home countries.

VU Business School offers these study programmes in English:

Undergraduate

Postgraduate

MBA Entrepreneurship

Dear #VUBS community members,

This year has helped us appreciate what we may have never noticed through the constant rush, the daily worries, and the work surrounding us. The 2020s seem to have forced us to stop, breathe, look around, and focus on common goals. Let the goals you achieved motivate you to reach new heights in 2021, and the inner pause and peace may never leave your home!

This year's holidays will be slightly different from usual, but we wish coziness and warmth!

Take care of ourselves and our beloved ones, stay healthy!

Special greetings for you from a real Santa Claus from Lapland, may all your wishes come true!

Click here: https://bit.ly/34El5Ir

Cooperation between VU Business School and VU Confucius Institute opens up new opportunities for business study students – the new China Track study module proposed by two institutions will allow the development of new competencies, acquisition of intercultural knowledge, which are essential for the development of business in the Chinese market.

Students' interest in this module has proven that China Track is a particularly attractive field of study – 28 motivated first-year students of the International Business program participated in the selection process.

Member of the commission, students’ representative Augustė Bagdonavičiūtė after the selection process commented: “Although I didn't have this opportunity myself, being a first-year student, it was very exciting and interesting to listen to every applicant. I was pleasantly surprised by the fact that we have so many enthusiastic, creative, and motivated students in Business School who already have their own business ideas or even already have started working on them. I really believe that China Track project will help them to become better entrepreneurs!"

The students who participated in the selection have chosen the China Track module for various reasons – some of them planned to link their business to the Chinese market, others were already cooperating with partners from China, there were also those whose family roots were in this country, so the desire to learn the language of ancestors was highly expressed.

The 18 selected participants of the China Track module will start studying the Chinese language and culture from the Spring semester. After completing the two-year course, the students will have the opportunity to choose an exchange semester at a Chinese university or a summer camp.

Vilnius University Business School pays special attention to improving the quality of studies. This issue became even more pressing during the pandemic, when studies moved to a remote space and maintaining the quality of studies, ensuring smooth communication between faculty, students, administration, and other interested members of our community became an even greater challenge. The objective indicators show that the community of Business School is coping well - fewer and fewer students decide to terminate their study contracts.

 “We can really be happy with the indicators of student satisfaction, progress and dropout numbers. Student dropout in the 2019-2020 academic year decreased by more than 60 percent, compared to 2018-2019. Student satisfaction with studies remains high, with 83% of students recommending their study program to others. We believe that this is greatly influenced by the quality of our proactive academic counseling, the focus on student feedback, and sometimes just plain human conversation.

 This year has been a big challenge for all of us, we had to adapt and deal with a wave of various, often unpleasant, emotions. We believe that together, by talking in our academic community and looking for solutions, we can solve all the problems that have arisen and together we can rejoice in our achievements“ – says doc. dr. Jurgita Vizgirdaitė, deputy director of VU Business School.

Academic counselors are in constant contact with students, seeking to proactively address issues, being a link between faculty and students. The aim is also to provide lecturers with all possible support for high-quality and smooth distance learning.

If you have any observations, suggestions or just want to talk, we strongly encourage you to contact academic advisors or write an e-mail by mail

This November Vilnius University (VU) Business School has participated in the first online edition of the De Vinci Study Abroad Fair, organized by partners Pôle Universitaire Léonard de Vinci in Paris, France. The Fair, which focuses on student mobility and studies abroad, is popular worldwide and this year attracted 57 partner universities from United States, Korea, Malaysia, India, Taiwan, Viet Nam, China, Australia, almost all European countries.

“The first experience of the study fair online was more than positive and especially nowadays, facing challenges of COVID 19 situation in the world, online study fairs might become a quite normal part of universities’ life. However, we really hope to have a possibility next year to participate in a regular study fair, if not – this online experience has shown that we are well prepared for virtual presentations as well,” Danutė Butkienė, International exchange coordinator said.

During the De Vinci Study Abroad Fair the students were able to discuss live with the actors of student mobility who were answering their questions about partner institutions around the world, Erasmus+ grants and all the details of staying in the partner institution – admission requirements, professors, lectures, dormitories, life cost in the country and many other questions.

VU Business School had a possibility to present itself in a live conference for the students that were interested to find out more about Business school and the programs. It seemed that one hour was not enough - it flew by quickly presenting and answering a number of students’ questions.