Brief about Latvia

1
Brief about Latvia

• Location Northeast Europe, eastern coast of the
  Baltic Sea
• Area 64 589 km2
• Population 2.35 million in 2002 (urban-68,
  rural-32)
• Capital Riga, 747 000 residents in 2002
• Ethnic composition 57.6 Latvian, 29.6
  Russian, 4.1 Byelorussian, 2.7 Ukrainian, 2.5
  Polish, 1.4 Lithuanian, 2.1 other nationalities
• Official language Latvian (the Baltic language
  group of the Indo-European languages)

2
Higher education in Latvia

• Total number of students in higher educational
  institutions 129 500 in 2007 (566 students on
  10 000 inhabitants, the second highest figure in
  the world)
• Number of higher educational institutions 60 in
  2007 (37 have been established by the state, 23
  have been established by the private persons)
• Total number of study programmes 700 in 2007

3
Development of education system

• education system democratization and
  decentralization took place from 1990 to 1994
• from 1995 to 2001 special attention was paid to
  putting in place the education system by
  substantially supplementing the normative and
  legislation basis
• from 2002 to 2007 - cooperation between education
  policy makers and its executors, and employers,
  as well as public involvement in education
  development process.

4
Major goals in the field of education

• to improve the quality and effectiveness of
  education and training systems
• to ensure that they are accessible to all
• to open up education and training to the wider
  world.

5
Students distribution by study directions in
2006.

• Social sciences, commercial sciences, law
• Education
• Engineering and construction
• Humanitarian sciences and arts
• Natural sciences and information technologies
• Health and social care
• Services
• Agriculture

• 54.0
• 12.3
• 9.9
• 7.2
• 5.5
• 5.2
• 4.7
• 1.2

6
Factors have been hindered to develop education
system

1. the labour market demand is insufficiently
   harmonized with the education supply
2. insufficient recourses for renewal and upgrading
   of the material and technical basis of education
   institutions
3. negative features regarding the number and age
   structure of academic staff, and non competitive
   salaries
4. insufficient international mobility of students
   and university lecturers
5. insufficient cooperation between professional
   education institutions and employers.