Abstract
Latvia is a small country with 2.3 million inhabitants located in the North-East Europe at the Eastern coast of the Baltic Sea. It is a catching-up economy, which in the 1990s underwent political and economic transformation from an authoritarian communist party rule and centrally planned socialist economy to a democratic multiparty government and liberal market economy. In 1991, Latvia regained its political independence from the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), which also largely implied breaking the economic ties with the ex-Soviet economic structures in which the Latvian economy had been deeply integrated during the previous 50 years.
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Notes
- 1.
Latvia became a Member State of the EU on 1 May 2004.
- 2.
Prestructural funds (for candidate countries) and structural funds (for member states) are funds allocated by the European Union allowing national governments to grant financial assistance to resolve structural economic and social problems.
- 3.
The Lisbon Strategy, also known as the Lisbon Agenda or Lisbon Process, is an action and development plan for the European Union. It was set out by the European Council in Lisbon on March 2000. According to this strategy, the EU set itself a new strategic goal for the next decade to become the most competitive and dynamic knowledge-based economy in the world, capable of sustainable economic growth with more and better jobs, and greater social cohesion by 2010. It was relaunched as the “Community Lisbon program” in 2005 with the new focus on growth and employment. Subsequently, each Member State had to elaborate its national reform plan in meeting the set goals.
- 4.
The ethnic composition of Latvian population is as follows: Latvians – 59.2%, Russians – 28%, Byelorussians – 3.6%, Ukrainians – 2.5%, Poles – 2.3%, Lithuanians – 1.3%, Jews – 0.4%, and other nationalities –2.7%.
- 5.
In 2007/2008, the share of students in HEIs funded by public resources made up only 25%, compared with 75% funded by private ones (CSB 2009, p. 7).
- 6.
Reforms included involvement of commercial banks in actual lending to students, while the government continued to provide a subsidized loan interest rate, grace period, loan forgiveness, and assumed its role as a second guarantor for 90% of loan amount to students (Kasa 2008, pp. 90–91).
- 7.
Reforms included involvement of commercial banks in actual lending to students, while the government continued to provide a subsidized loan interest rate, grace period, loan forgiveness, and assumed its role as a second guarantor for 90% of loan amount to students (Kasa 2008, pp. 90–91).
- 8.
It is difficult to obtain reliable data on exact share of working students. In their sample of undergraduate social science students, Auers et al. (2007, pp. 482–483) found that 44% of respondents are working. But as their survey was carried out before or after compulsory classes, they admit a risk that working students may be under-represented as they are less likely to attend classes. Auers et al. (2007, p. 481) cite results of the survey carried out by the Latvian Student’s Association, indicating that 54% of students were employed. Among graduate students, almost all are working.
- 9.
Following the example of Finland in the 1980s, the scientific community of Latvia advocated 0.1% increase for several years, while the current provision is based on more recent calculations of the Minister of Education and Science in order to reach 1% by 2010.
- 10.
LVL = 1.423 EUR = 1.721 USD (rate on 31 January 2006).
- 11.
On 30 May 2006, the Cabinet of Ministers approved nine thematic priorities for funding basic and applied research for 2006–2009: agrobiotechnology, biomedicine and pharmacy, energy, information technologies, Latvian studies, material science, forestry, health, and environmental science.
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Adamsone-Fiskovica, A., Kristapsons, J., Tjunina, E., Ulnicane-Ozolina, I. (2011). Latvia: Repositioning of Academic Institutions in a Catching-Up Country. In: Göransson, B., Brundenius, C. (eds) Universities in Transition. Insight and Innovation in International Development. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-7509-6_11
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