The aim of the study is using systematic literature analysis method -literature overview -identify the factors, which affect the competitiveness of a higher education institution in the conditions of globalization. Qualitative methods, as well as systematic literature analysis method -literature overview have been used in the study. More than 6000 scientific articles were considered to choose 20 full text articles for in-depth analysis. Main conclusions and results -the systematic literature analysis method -literature overview is a convenient tool for systematizing, selecting and collecting information about the research subject, using author's articles, which have already gathered key information from a number of researchers of a specific topic together; the competitiveness of higher education institution is influenced by the internal factors that are formed by the internal environment of the higher education institution and external factors that are formed by the external micro-environment and macro-environment influenced by the state policy; an analysis of the internal and external factors of an institution is important in order to create competitive advantages in a higher education institution.

The processes of globalization in the world economy have a significant impact on different processes and development in all national economy sectors. Innovations and technological development have also increased the competition between economic operators. Faster growth is also observed in service industries. The global economic downturn affected the Baltic States whose development suffered a sharp decline at the end of 2008 and in 2009. A sudden drop in the demand in export markets, as well as the decline in the demand in the domestic markets due to low purchasing power contributed to the deterioration of the economic situation in the Baltic States, particularly in the manufacturing and construction sectors. Starting from 2011, the economic indicators in the Baltic States have been growing and here the export of goods and services can be mentioned as the main contributor to the development of the economy in the Baltic States. Significant changes in the development of economic sectors started in 2013 due to Russia's economic problems. During the period 2005-2015, most of the value added to the overall structure of the national economy in all three Baltic States was brought by trade and manufacturing. The aim of the research is to analyse the national economy sectors in the Baltic States during the period 2005-2015 in order to determine processes that affected the development of economy sectors in each of the countries, or the opposite-the recession, thus finding the most competitive sector of the national economy of the Baltic States.

Aim – to identify criterions and parameters for classification of higher education institutions, using research method – qualitative content analysis. The following tasks are defined for reaching the aim: to conduct qualitative content analysis and define categories and their frequency; to describe and analyse defined categories; to compare different classifications of higher education institutions; to summarize the analysis results and draw conclusions. Research methodology – overview of literature and qualitative content analysis. Findings – qualitative content analysis helps to structure the information gathered, to select the relevant and applicable, and leads to the development of new categories; higher education institutions are classified in many ways, using different criterions and parameters; classifications made by individual researchers are available, as well as universally known and applied classifications of higher education institutions such as Carnegie Classification and European classification of higher education institutions. Research limitations – the classification of higher education institutions is analysed only from Europe and the United States of America.