Research News
Bad news for hateful commentators
In April 2021, a virtual patrol was launched on Lithuanian Facebook - a great and undoubtedly necessary initiative to control the violations taking place on the platform. From the beginning of the patrol to November, over 2,700 reports of misconduct were received. Such a number would probably not surprise anyone who spends at least a few hours a day scrolling on Facebook. It is an open secret that we can easily notice at least one such violator ourselves.
VMU – the Most International University in Lithuania
A recently published international ranking of universities in Europe and central Asia (QS EECA University Rankings) revealed that Vytautas Magnus University (VMU) was ranked 61st out of 451 higher education institutions ranked in total – VMU was included among the 13.5 percent of the best universities in the region. As in the previous year, the internationality of the university received the highest position: with regard to this indicator, VMU received the first place among all other Lithuanian universities ranked and the 43rd place in the overall ranking.
Religious Minorities in Soviet Lithuania: Secret Meetings in Forests
"As the holidays approach, many still remember the stories of people celebrating religious holidays in hiding, with their curtains closed during the Soviet times. The Soviet government's hostility to religion may be interpreted in various ways, but it is important to emphasize that it was a political regime whose hostility toward religion came primarily from the state's desire to control and subordinate all religious organizations for its own purposes, although freedom of conscience was not officially forbidden," says VMU Professor Milda Ališauskienė, who, together with her colleagues, conducted a study on religious minorities in Soviet Lithuania.
Conference on Alliances in Higher Education transformation
How boldly should we innovate European education? What transformational changes does higher education need to go through? Vytautas Magnus university (VMU) together with other Lithuanian higher education institutions would like to invite you to watch the online event “Higher education transformation: alliances as a strategic direction“. The event will be held online on the 9th of December, 9:00 – 12:30 (CET).
Social Remittances of (Re)Migrants for Society Welfare Growth
On Thursday 9 December, 5 p.m., a research presentation and discussion titled Social Remittances of (Re)Migrants for Society Welfare Growth will be held online. During the event, research will be presented which explores how (re)migrants - people who departed from the country after the 90s and have higher education – "give back" to their homeland. The study was conducted by the scholars at Vytautas Magnus University and Social Innovations Institute in Lithuania along with colleagues in Croatia, Poland, and the UK. Those wishing to participate are invited to register online.
A Tool for Hate Speech Detection on the Internet is Being Developed
As the number of online hate comments increases, artificial intelligence comes to the aid: researchers from Vytautas Magnus University (VMU), together with the Lithuanian Human Rights Center, European Foundation of Human Rights and the Department of National Minorities under the Government of the Republic of Lithuania are developing a tool that will help to automatically detect and remove cases of hate speech, for instance, in the comment sections of news portals. According to one of the project developers, Professor Tomas Krilavičius, Dean of the VMU Faculty of Informatics, the development of such a tool is quite challenging: people themselves often find it difficult to recognize hate speech, and artificial intelligence needs to be thoroughly trained to do so.
