摘要：This article deals with systematic changes in the field of Baltic studies, which occurred in last decade in the countries of Central Europe. In the first part the institutional geography of Baltic studies is being discussed, reflecting the weak institutional and financial stability of Baltic studies in Western countries and the increasing role of the Baltic studies’ centers in Central Europe. The next part of the paper reflects on dramatic changes in Baltic studies themselves: this field is no more considered by students as a part of linguistics strictu senso, but rather as areal studies, providing students with a wide range of information on history, culture, literature, ethnology etc. This leads to an academic paradox, when studies of the systems of Lithuanian and Latvian languages, i.e. phonology, morphology, syntax, prosody etc. (which are supposed to be the very core of Baltic linguistics in the scientific sense) are often considered by students as to academic, dull and ending in itself. Language cease to be an object of the analysis and is considered only as an instrument or medium, which allows one to come to the „proper“ object of interest. That is Baltic culture in a very wide (and undefined) sense. It seems, that this approach to the language could be derived from the concept of the European scientific politics, which focuses only on the pragmatic and quantitative parametrs of academic education.
关键词：Baltic studies, politics of science, European Union, Lithuanian language, Latvian language, Baltic languages, high education, university education.
