Inter-institutional networks become more and more important for today’s organizations [1]. Many of researchers argue that such partnerships promote mutual trust, knowledge sharing, and relationship-specific assets that enhance performance [2], [3], [4]. Business-oriented organizations are recognizing the advantages that come with these networks. Academic and educational systems are a typical example of inter-institutional network and viewing these institutions as elements of a single network would yield positive results for all the parties. However there is almost no research on the educational system as an inter-institutional network, especially in information systems development education. Furthermore, the tendency of last years shows that the first year students of the Faculty of Computer Science and Information Technology of the Riga Technical University (the University) have different knowledge levels in the information technology (IT) field despite the fact that all secondary schools in Latvia have to apply the same education standard for computer science curriculum. The described situation in the education system shows that the inter-institutional networks and information and knowledge flows between the elements of the networks are not very effective, possibly because of the lack of regular analysis of existing knowledge and existing feedbacks available in the network.

The purpose of this study is to consider the educational system as an inter-institutional network and to define the feedbacks existing within it in order to improve the network’s overall performance. The defined inter-institutional system model consists of the following elements:

- At institutional level: (school level) secondary school student, teacher of computer science, management of a school, (the University level) student, lecturer, scientist;
- At municipality level: Board of the Schools;
- At national level: Ministry of Education and Science.

In order to analyze the existing feedbacks within the inter-institutional education system existing research papers on theoretical feedback types were reviewed.
The main element of the inter-institutional network in this research is the University. The paper analyses the defined feedbacks in order to determine the information that is necessary to support them by defining the data that are needed from the inter-institutional network in order to support the development of mechanisms allowing the University to adjust more easily to changes in the environment it operates in.
Method of the research includes an analysis of the existing research results within the context of the feedback types and parameters and development of inter-institutional model including all relationships between the elements of the educational system.
The paper is structured as follows – Section 1 gives an overview of the educational system in Latvia, Section 2 analyses the existing research results within the context of the feedback types and parameters. Section 3 shows the developed inter-institutional model including all relationships between elements of the system and gives the results of existing feedback analysis. Section 4 analyses the defined feedbacks. Conclusions and future research directions are defined at the end of the paper.

[1] M. J. Hatch, Organization Theory: Modern, Symbolic, and Postmodern Perspectives. New York: Oxford University Press Inc, 1997.
[2] B. Asanuma, “Manufacturer-supplier relationships in Japan..."