International Scientific Conference

1
International Scientific Conference The Next
Decade Challenges for BusinessAccessing
Knowledge Society Patterns, Trends and Impacts
of Higher Education

• Professor Baiba Rivza
• Chairperson of the Council of Higher Education of
  Latvia

2
Latvia in the EU higher education space

• Four main objectives of the Bologna process
• Democratic society
• Personality
• Labour market
• Increase of knowledge, professionality

3
Number of students in Latvian HEI
Total number of students 130 693
Students of 20 state HEI 89 641 (69)
Students of 14 private HEI 32 315 (25)
Students of state colleges 4571 (3)
Students of private colleges 4166 (3)
Full time students 80 291 (61)
Part time students 50 402 (39)
Students financed by state 30 607 (23)
Studying for the fee 100 086 (77)
4
Structure of the academic staff in Latvia
5
Age of academic staff in Latvia
Private HEI
State HEI
6
Number of professors and associate professors in
Latvia
Number of prof., as.prof. Number of students per one prof., as.prof.
Education science 62 300
Humanitarian sciences and arts 218 41.9
Social sciences, entrepreneurship, law 163 423.2
Natural sciences and mathematics 153 41.5
Engineering and technology 167 89.2
Agricultre 41 50.6
Health, health and social care 107 40.5
Services 38 86.5
7
Challenges for HEI

• Transition from elitare to mass education
• increase of workload and intensity
• necessity to conduct classes for bigger number of
  students.

8
Challenges for HEI

• II. Big regional disparities in HE between
  capital cities and other regions of the Baltic
  states. Necessity intensify and strengthen the
  relevance of study programs to regional
  socio-economical situation
• Latvia
• 27 HEI in Riga (capital city)
• 6 HEI and some branch offices in regions
• 77 from all students and 78 form all academic
  staff is located
• in HEI in Riga
• Lithuania
• 7 institutions in Vilnius (capital city), 6 in
  Kaunas and one university each
• in Klaipeda and Šiauliai
• 52 of all students located in Vilnius, 37 in
  Kaunas and about
• 11 in other regions
• Estonia
• Two centers of education Tallinn (capital city)
  and Tartu
• 30,5 of all students located in Tartu, 68 in
  Tallinn

9
Challenges for HEI

• III. Small number of PhD students and especially
  graduates

Reviewed promotion works
HEI 2004 2005
University of Latvia 38 51
Riga Technical University 20 21
Daugavpils University 3 5
Latvia University of Agriculture 12 13
Riga Stradins University 13 15
Art Academy of Latvia 2 1
Latvian Academy of Culture - 1
United council of Art Academy 1 -
10
Challenges for HEI

• IV. Necessity to increase quality of academic
  staff
• V. Pressure of labour market requirements
• VI. Virtual development

11
Suggestions

• It is necessary to
• increase responsibility of the state to set up
  preconditions and develop a mechanism for
  cooperation between state and private HEI,
  government and employers
• set up a dialogue between HEI and forces involved
  in higher education
• improve HE institutional research effectiveness.

12

• Thank You for your attention!