Association of Latvian Universities Against World Bank’s Proposal to Reduce Higher Education Funding

ALU wants to draw the attention of the Latvian Government, the Ministry of Education and Science, the Parliament and the whole society to the fact that making such short-sighted decisions can lead to the national higher education and science collapse in just a few years, and it would have adverse affect on Latvia’ s economy and international competitiveness. “The WB proposes to reduce the number of budget places by 50% and to suspend government subsidies on student loans that clearly demonstrates the lack of understanding about the real situation in our country and marks the advancement towards completely fee-paying higher education in Latvia. It would deny the opportunity for a large part of young people to study and later find qualified and accordingly remunerated jobs. The worst-case scenario for Latvia will be transforming from a country with a traditionally very high number of students per thousand people to a place where university education is exclusive and available only for the elite. Therefore we hope that Latvian policy-makers and especially education policy-makers will serve the interests of the state and society,” underlined Prof. Mārcis Auziņš, Rector of the University of Latvia and chairman of ALU. In opposition to WB, ALU maintains that in the time of crisis, when all the people in Latvia are experiencing financial difficulties, the number of budget-financed places and the availability of the government subsidies on student loans should be maximised because the paying capacity of young people and their parents is plummeting. Consequently, the Latvian Government must evaluate whether slight national budget savings are worth the destruction of the higher education system, which took decades to build up, and the loss of the best education professionals and scientists and the brightest young people who will go abroad never to return to their home country. ALU is certain that further budgetary reductions of the Latvian higher education, which currently is allocated only 0.5% of Latvia’s GDP,  are utterly inconceivable and threaten not only the development of Latvia as a country, but also the future existence of the Latvian people and preservation of the nation’s identity. ALU also wants to remind that in 2009 Latvia’s higher education funding was reduced by half or 48%, but in 2010 by additional 18%. No other economic sector (not even to mention state administration) has suffered such severe cuts. Even today it is hard for Latvia to compete with other European countries where higher education receives 1.5 – 2% of GDP on average, because getting out of the crisis and successful national development is possible on the base of innovations and high value-added production for which educated and skilled people are needed. For this very reason many European countries, including our closest neighbours, are purposefully increasing the funding for higher education and science or at least maintaining it at the same level. The Association of Latvian Universities The Association of Latvian Universities was founded on 30 April, 2009, to promote the development of higher education and science, and strengthen university education in Latvia. Its members are the University of Latvia, Riga Technical University, Daugavpils University, Rīga Stradiņš University, Liepaja University and Latvia University of Agriculture.
Translated by students of the professional study programme Translator of the University of Latvia.