History
Kvietiškis manor
Marijampole Higher Education Institution is located in the surroundings of the Kvietiškis Manor Farmstead and other buildings (U.K. 337), a place that is reminiscent of the origins of the city of Marijampolė. The history of Kvietiškis Manor dates back to 1717, when the Butlerių family moved from Prienai and built a wooden manor house and chapel. Soon the manor and the village of Pašešupis grew into a town named Starapolė.
In 1758, on the initiative of Countess Butlerienė, a Marian monastery with a church was built between the Šešupė River and the Jevonis Stream. The Kvietiškis Manor and the new Marian monastery formed the axis of the nascent town of Marijampolė. If in the mid-17th century the Pašešupys were only marshes and forests that were difficult to pass through, it was here that the city of Marijampolė grew, with the rich Kvietiškis manor, for most of the 18th century under the leadership of Butlerių family.
The academic community of Marijampole Higher Education Institution is the custodian of the Kvietiškis heritage. One of the manor’s outbuildings (the warehouse of the Kvietiškis Manor Farmstead and other buildings complex (U.K. 36740)) has retained its original purpose and condition. Thanks to the efforts of the University staff, it has been cleaned up and a small exhibition on the history of the manor and the University has been prepared. Everyone can come to Kvietiškis for a walk, to admire the nature and to listen to the birds.
Marijampole Higher Education Institution
Marijampole University was established by the Resolution of the Government of the Republic of Lithuania No.l 035 of 24 August 2001, point 1.3. of which states. Marijampole Higher Education Institution by reorganising Marijampole Higher School of Pedagogy and Marijampole Higher School of Agriculture.
Paragraph 4 of this Resolution provides for the transfer to the established Institution of the management and use of the State-owned assets owned and used by the reorganised higher education institutions under the right of entrustment.
Pursuant to the Decree of the Government of the Republic of Lithuania, the Minister of Education and Science of the Republic of Lithuania signed Order No 1238 of 28 August 2001 on the reorganisation of the Marijampole Higher Schools of Pedagogy and Agriculture into the Marijampole Higher Education Institution.
Following the completion of these necessary procedures, the Minister of Education and Science, Mr A. Monkevičius, signed the institution’s registration certificate M No 000380 on 31 August 2001. It states that Marijampole Higher Education Institution (code 1196714) is a higher education institution with the main activity being non-university higher education (code 80.30.20)
Faculties
Faculty of Education and Social Work
The beginning of the Faculty of Education and Social Work at Marijampole University of Applied Sciences was 1919, established by Marijampole Teachers’ Seminary. It was the largest seminary in terms of the number of students, with a good material base, an exemplary territory and an impeccable language environment.
During the war and the first years of the occupation, the seminary suffered a great deal: the archives were destroyed, the library was ruined.
In 1952, following the example of the Soviet Union, the Teachers’ Seminary is renamed the Pedagogical School Park, to repress the teachers scattered by the storms of war.
In 1959, in addition to primary school teachers, pre-school teachers were also trained.
In 1964, following an evaluation of the school’s activities, it was approved as the republic’s supporting pedagogical school, i.e. it was entrusted with the task of directing the methodological and creative activities of the republic’s pedagogical schools.
After the construction of extensions and dormitories in 1966-1968, the school was enlarged to accommodate about 800 pupils and 80-85 teachers.
In 1983, a school branch was opened in Kaunas, where kindergarten teachers were trained.
In 1986, the Marijampolė School of Culture was merged, which became the music department of the pedagogical school. At first, the school trained choirmasters, village band directors, directors of drama groups, and later – music teachers. The number of students at the school grew to one and a half thousand and the number of teachers to two hundred.
In 1991, the school was reorganised into a Higher School of Pedagogy. The structure of the school changed, and the training of teachers in new specialities began. A preparatory general education department was opened. In 1994, English and German teachers for primary schools were trained, while primary school teachers were trained with specialisations in music, religion and foreign language teaching. In order to meet the request of the Vilkaviškis Diocesan Curia, in 1996, prospective music teachers were given the opportunity to acquire the specialisation of church organist.
As of 1st September 2001, the Higher School of Pedagogy was reorganised into a faculty of the newly established University of Applied Sciences.
Faculty of Business and Technology
The history of the Faculty dates back to 1st May 1926, when the Kvietiškis Lower School of Agriculture was established in the former Kvietiškis Manor with the approval of the then Minister of Agriculture of the Republic of Lithuania, M. Krupavičius. The school was established on 64 hectares of land, the central building of the manor, residential houses and farm buildings.
The first school year began on 1st October 1926. At the start of the school, 30-35 pupils, mostly children of medium-sized farmers, completed 4 grades and were seeking to acquire new knowledge of farming. Each year the school produced 20-45 graduates. By the Second World War, 468 young people had graduated from the school.
In 1932, the first scientific animal husbandry institution in Lithuania, the Bekon Research Station, was established in Kvietiškis.
The school was devastated during World War II, but remained open until 1943.
Post-war school reorganisations: 1945-09-01 – Kvietiškis Agricultural School; 1945-12-12 – Marijampolė Livestock Technical Institute; 1955-04-02 – Kapsuk Livestock Technical Institute; 1962-09-01– Kapsuk Agricultural Technical Institute; 1969-02-10 – Kapsuk Soviet Farm Technical Institute; 1986-08-27 – Kapsuk Agribusiness Soviet Farm Technical Institute; 1989-1 1-15 -Marijampolė Soviet Farm Technical Institute; 1990-06-28 – Marijampolė Higher School of Agriculture.
In the post-war years, the school trained zootechnicians, and a part-time department was established in 1949. From 1954, future agronomists are enrolled, and from 1969, mechanical technicians.
1951-1956: construction of the central educational building, planting of a park, a stadium and playgrounds; In 1971-1972, a dormitory, a gymnasium and a canteen complex were built, as well as a training building for agricultural mechanisation.
After the restoration of the independence of the Republic of Lithuania, the school’s community-built teaching facilities and the educational results achieved allowed it to be granted the status of a Higher School of Agriculture.
At that time, the school had a Vocational Training Department and a Postgraduate Studies Department, which also had part-time study groups. In the Vocational Training Department, pupils could complete their secondary education and choose to study to become a home economist, a farm economist or a farm manager. In the post-secondary section, graduates were admitted to study home economics, accountancy, agricultural commerce, agricultural mechanisation, agricultural technology or surveying and land management.
The agricultural reform left 65.8 hectares of land for the school, which has been rotated.
Almost 9000 specialists were graduated before the establishment of University of Applied Sciences (7266 agricultural specialists before the restoration of independence of the Republic of Lithuania).
In 2001, the higher education institution became the Faculty of Business and Technology of Marijampole University of Applied Sciences.
