On the path of implementing a joint information system for Lithuanian higher education institutions

The paper reviews the current Lithuanian Higher Education (HE) and research information system, its future organisational structure and steps to system re-engineering. Aiming at faster adaptation to rapidly changing external environments, higher education institutions are trying to create and implement institution resource planning and management components, including: financials, campus management, human resource management, records management, etc. The Lithuanian Ministry of Education and Science, in executing higher education reform, has expressed the initiative to influence these processes because it needs high quality and fast statistical information from HE institutions. In many cases, information received from different institutions is incomplete, inaccurate and, at times, delayed. The implementation of the library informational system (ALEPH 500) at all Higher Education & Research (HE&R) institutions has shown the effectiveness of a common system working on one network. A team of information technologies specialists, representatives from different institutions, researched the current situation, analysed existing institutional information systems, suggested conceptions and developed specifications for a unified Lithuanian HE&R Information System.