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Students from Latvia, Estonia and Finland addressed common issues in HEDF’s discussion about higher education
On 12th august hyperlocal discussion “Why do we need higher education? Being a student in Estonia, Latvia and Finland!” took place at “Kino Bize”, Riga and also at Tartu, Estonia and Helsinki, Finland. The theme of the pilot discussion organized within the Hybrid European Democracy Festival (HEDF) is primarily related to the representation of student interests and challenges affecting the availability, quality and future development of higher education. During the discussion, student representatives pointed out that the importance of higher education in everyone’s everyday life is related not only to expanding the scope of knowledge, but also to the opportunities for individual growth and the improvement of the study environment in…
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Join ESU Quality Assurance Student Experts Pool!
If you are interested in participating in the quality of higher education evaluation processes, use the opportunity to become a member of the European Student Union’s Quality Assurance Network (ESU QA Pool) for the term 2023/2024. The network maintained by ESU ensures the involvement of students in the quality assurance system, evaluation, and accreditation of study programs, proving that students are important decision-makers in ensuring the quality of higher education throughout Europe. The main benefits of joining the ESU student-expert network: The main duties and tasks of a member of the ESU student-expert network: Minimum requirements for applicants: Application takes place through the ESU website. You can find more detailed information…
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We invite to complete the Survey about Discrimination in Higher Education Institutions
The Student Union of Latvia (LSA) in cooperation with Students’ Council of the University of Latvia (LU SP) and the University of Latvia (UL) has made a “Discrimination in higher education institutions” survey to gather information about what kind of discrimination students, academics and general staff encounter in the higher education institutions. At the moment, in Latvia, there is a lack of in-depth analysis about the cases of discrimination in Latvia’s higher education institutions, which would reflect discrimination cases and statistics in universities and colleges. Survey’s data will be important to define the current situation in the higher education environment in order to impose anti-discrimination and inclusive environment promoting events. LSA…
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Foreign students left without means of living can receive assistance
The Latvian parliament has adopted a law which allows foreign students who are left without means of living to be assisted by the social service agencies of local governments during the emergency situation and one month after its ending. Students can be assisted by a social service agency if they: are left without means of living, are staying in Latvia during Covid-19 crisis, are studying remotely, have registered their stay in a local government in Latvia, and have a temporary residence permit. If you are currently in Latvia, you can be assisted by the social service agency of the local government in which you have registered your stay. Unfortunately students who…
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Latvian Parliament to decide on restricting studies in Russian in private higher education institutions (HEI)
Today the Saeima (Latvian Parliament) will view in third, i.e. final reading the proposal for amendment of Law On Institutions of Higher Education. An uproar in society has been caused by the proposal of the Minister of Education and Science Kārlis Šadurskis, which includes a stronger language regulation of study program implementation for all higher education institutions (HEI) including all colleges and private HEIs, as well as a prohibition on implementing study programs in Russian. As of last week, this new proposal has been supported in the Education, Culture and Science Committee of Saeima. The proposal calls to further implement study programs in official languages of the European Union only when:…
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Certification procedures for dental students from abroad have been improved
On September 12 the Latvian government, after lengthy discussions, supported the several times postponed amendments to the regulations set by the Cabinet of Ministers*, which aimed to improve the certification procedures for dental students from abroad. The new regulations provide that foreign students will no longer need to certify knowledge of the state language during the first certification process. The previous procedure foresaw that foreign students who have completed the study programme in English and are not planning on working in Latvia still could not be certified if they had not been given a certificate of knowledge of the state language of at least C1 level. Amendments approved by the Latvian…
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Certification procedures for international dental students will be improved
On May 9, the government supported the proposition from the Cabinet of Ministers, which provides for the development of certification procedures for international dental students. This means that a problem, that has been continuing for several years, will be addressed regarding international students who have completed the dental programme in English, yet cannot receive their certification, because in one of the statutory clauses it is said that to fulfill the requirements and to obtain their certificate a C1 level of knowledge must be shown in the state official language (Latvian). In the meeting of the Cabinet of Ministers, which was attended by and their opinions were voiced by the representatives of…
