"Allowing international students to come to Lithuania and keeping the teaching in the foreign language (...) makes our students a little bit more globalized. Because their problem, as sometimes we feel in Lithuania, is a little bit of provincialism and of understanding what is going on globally," the minister said on Thursday.
Pavalkis noted an increase in the numbers of students from Western countries coming to study to Lithuanian universities.
"What we see in this year's admission to universities – the list of countries has changed. Earlier the top countries were Lebanon, Pakistan, India, this year the highest number of foreign students at the Lithuanian University of Health Sciences is from Germany, followed by Spain, Sweden and only then Israel. They are followed by Lebanon, Pakistan, etc.," the minister added, emphasizing he cannot explain the reasons behind the change.
Pavalkis is attending a conference in Vilnius on internationalization of higher education together with representatives from 36 countries. Around 200 participants include representatives from 24 EU member states, the United States, China, Australia, Kazakhstan, and other countries.
