STUDENTS‘ OPINIONS ABOUT THE QUALITY OF STUDIES

Introduction
It is essential to create conditions that ensure the curriculum quality for students and meet their needs. The aim of a higher school is to prepare professionals who will be able to compete in the labour market. The question of quality in the higher education system has been explored by competent scientists in Lithuania. Their works prove that quality is important in the post-modern age, especially when universities aim at popularity as much as possible. This leads to an opinion that students must be provided with good study conditions and the organization of the study process must be of quality.
Object of the survey: the quality of studies.
Aim of the survey: to include the quality of studies according to students’ assessment.

This paper deals with the quality indicators of only three diagnostic blocks on the quality of the study process, students’ motivation to study and realization of modules. The respondents were asked to mark one answer on a 5-point Likert scale that shows their opinion best: Strongly disagree (coded 1); Disagree (coded 2); Neither agree nor disagree (coded 3), Agree (coded 4); Strongly agree (coded 5). The questionnaire was developed and tested by Kolmogorov–Smirnov Z test which showed that the variables are far from normal dispersion.
Methods: survey; data analysis was done using the method of statistical analysis. Mann-Witney test showed statistically significant differences of non-parametric data. Aiming to expand the obtained data, descriptive statistics was used to convert the respondents’ answers to percentage.
Sample
2376 students participated in the research: 75% of women and 25% of men in full time Bachelor programs, 65% of women and 35% of men in part time studies. 83% of women and 17% of men in Master programs.

Results
A purposeful decision to study at Šiauliai University by all types of students was stated because they had not been admitted to some other institution of higher education. Only 7% of Master programs students indicated that their selection of the mentioned university was under denied conditions to study at other higher schools of Lithuania or in other countries. This indicated the purposeful selection of studies at Šiauliai University in all types of study programs, especially (p<0.05) in Master studies. Less than half of the students were sure that they had chosen studies at the University because of knowledge that they will get the best training. The majority of part time students selected studies at Siauliai University because only this higher school offered interesting program. These data are of statistically significant difference (p<0.05) comparing to the opinion of the full time respondents.
Lecturers used the post-modern paradigm in the study process mostly in Master programs according to the respondents. Students’ creativity as well as skills to solve problems independently was encouraged within the study process of 70% Master programs students. This situation was similar in the Bachelor studies process. It was stated that active learning methods were regularly used at Siauliai University and this inspired students to concentrate on the main tasks and practice by fostering higher order thinking. There were no statistically significant differences between the types of studies.