Innovation Management Studies: Towards Quality Improvement

In 2013, as a result of the project Development and Implementation of the Postgraduate Study Programme Innovation Management and Technologies, a new postgraduate study programme was developed and launched in Klaipėda University. Since the study programme has been running for a year now, a decision to evaluate its quality and to identify students' opinions about the significance of the tasks for the heads of the Research and Development Divisions, as laid out in the International Standard Classification of Occupations, as well as about the aims and the intended learning outcomes of the study programme, was taken. The objective of the survey was to evaluate the need for the studies of innovation management and the quality of their implementation, as well as to identify the directions of the innovation manager training improvement. To justify the need for managers trained in the Innovation Management and Technologies study programme, as well as their competences, a pilot survey was carried out. To evaluate the quality of the studies, quantitative research was conducted by means of a structurised written survey. The outcomes of the research proved that the study programme met the main needs of the students, and its aims and the intended learning outcomes were important and relevant for the training of innovation managers. The quality of the study programme can, and is to, be improved by active use of the case study method, by integrating the staff of innovation companies into the curriculum of the study programme, by changing the ratio between the time allotted for theoretical and practical studies, and by designing specific methodical guidelines for the writing of the Master’s final thesis in the present study programme.