about university

About University

Vytautas Magnus University (VMU) is a public university in Kaunas, Lithuania. The university was founded in 1922 during the interwar period as an alternate national university.

It is one of the leading universities in Lithuania and has about 8,800 students, including Master’s students and Ph.D. candidates. There are a little over 1000 employees, including approximately 90 professors.

VMU has 12 academic subdivisions and covers all study areas (Agricultural Sciences, Arts, Biomedical Sciences, Humanities, Physical Sciences, Social Sciences, and Technological Sciences) with the only exception of Medicine. Thirty research and art centers and 50 high-tech laboratories operate at VMU.  Over 30 percent of all Bachelor’s and Master’s degree programs are taught in English. VMU’s Foreign Language Institute offers all students the to learn one or more out of thirty languages.

VMU is the only public higher education institution in Lithuania and one of the few in the region where a wide liberal arts education is imparted. This means that students can change and organize their schedule freely, minor in one field and major in another, travel abroad on international exchange, and get ready for those trips by taking some of the available 30 foreign language courses. As a reflection of global academic trends, more and more lectures (separate courses and even whole study programs) are taught in English, many of them by professors from abroad.

Faculties

• Faculty of Catholic Theology
• Faculty of Economics and Management
• Faculty of Natural Sciences / Faculty of Informatics
• Faculty of Arts
• Faculty of Humanities / Faculty of Political Science and Diplomacy
• Faculty of Social Sciences / Faculty of Law
• Institute of Foreign Languages
• Academy of Agriculture

Student Life in Kaunas

Kaunas, the second largest Lithuania city, keeps the authentic spirit of the country‘s national character alive. The city is located at the confluence of the two largest Lithuanian rivers, surrounded by hills, and situated at the crossroads of the most important roads in Lithuania

Kaunas is a colorful city, famous for its Interwar architecture which was awarded the European Heritage label and is on its way to UNESCO. Kaunas is the only city in the world where so much of the style of the buildings has survived to the present day.

Discover Kaunas as a great place for meetings, experience the city’s unique ambiance, and get introduced to a number of modern conference facilities and quality services, along with exciting leisure activities. The unique atmosphere of Kaunas can be explored, which is distinguished by the heritage of the painter and composer M. K. Čiurlionis.

Green streets, tree-lined avenues, and wide-open squares create surroundings to match everybody’s moods. Kaunas is proud of its great number of museums, theatres, universities, colleges, fine hotels, restaurants, cafes, and bars. Guests can try a range of cuisine from many European and Asian countries as well as an abundance of traditional Lithuanian food, drink, and hospitality.

Accommodation 

During the academic year, international students are accommodated in VMU dormitory No. 2 named BALTIJA, which is located in the city center (Vytauto pr. 71, Kaunas) close to the university. From the nine-story building, you can enjoy a wonderful view of Kaunas panorama which is seen from the upper floors of the dormitory. The dormitory is situated next to one of the central streets in Kaunas.

The nine-story dormitory has a structure of different types of rooms:

• Single-bed room with a bathroom (sink, a shower tub, and a WC for one resident)
• Two-bedroom with a shared bathroom (sink, a shower tub, and a WC for two residents)
• Single-bed room in a block of rooms (it includes single-bedroom and one common bathroom (sink, a shower tub, and a WC) which has to be shared with residents of a three-bedroom)
• Two-bedroom in a block of rooms (it includes two-bedroom and one common bathroom (sink, a shower tub, and a WC) which has to be shared with residents of a three-bedroom)

In each room, there is free broadband or Wi-Fi internet access, a table, bed, fridge, wardrobe, and chairs. 

Common areas of the dormitory:

• Two kitchens per floor. There are cooking facilities that make it easy for the residents to prepare their own meals. Kitchen utensils (cookware, i.e. pots, pans, etc.) are not provided;
• Reading rooms are located on the seventh and first floors of the dormitory;
• The self-service laundry-drying room is located in the dormitory’s basement. These services are charged additionally 

The leisure area with a TV, and table tennis is in the dormitory’s lobby;

Research

Many of the research innovations at VMU are born at the confluence of disciplines. The main strength of research at VMU is our ability to respond to an increasingly globalized and competitive landscape prompting the dynamic formation of new research priorities and facilitating ongoing improvements in research performance both at a national and an international level. VMU is currently conducting about 100 projects in the fields of biotechnology, biophysics, technology law, education, sociology, philosophy, computational linguistics, language acquisition and bilingualism, creative industries, and others.