By Nick Clark, Assistant Editor, WENR

Legal Framework

On June 19, 1991, soon after the collapse of the Soviet Union, Latvia reformed its system of education with the adoption of the Law on Education. This law provided the legal background for changes roughly consistent with many of the principles of the Bologna Declaration. The new law provided a framework that was later solidified and clarified by the Law on Higher Education Establishments, adopted four years later. The most significant reforms of 1991 and 1995 gave greater autonomy to institutions of higher education, created a division of academic and professional qualifications, introduced a two-tier system of bachelor- and master-level studies, allowed the establishment of private institutions and introduced a culture of quality assurance and accreditation. These reforms, and subsequent amendments introduced in 2000 are outlined below where relevant to the principles of the Bologna Declaration.

1. Easily Readable and Comparable Degrees

• Discussions over the adoption of the Diploma Supplement were already well advanced in Latvia when the Bologna Declaration was signed in 1999, and a number of institutions were already issuing a version of the supplement to graduates of certain programs.
• All technical preparations for the introduction of the diploma supplement have been successfully introduced. The key documents are available in Latvian, and a Rectors Council working group has produced detailed instructions for compiling diploma supplements: http://www.aic.lv/rec/Eng/leg_en/ds_doc.htm.
• Each year the Latvian ENIC/NARIC body produces a description of Latvia’s higher education system for use with and to be attached to the diploma supplement.
• A number of institutions are now issuing the supplement, although it has not been introduced nationally. The Ministry of Education has said all relevant regulations for the implementation of the diploma supplement will be prepared and approved soon.
• Latvia has signed and ratified (July 1999) the Lisbon Convention on the Recognition of Qualifications. Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia signed a multilateral agreement on the recognition of qualifications in the Baltic Education Space in 2000.
• The Latvian ENIC/NARIC works under the auspices of the Latvian Academic Information Center.

2. Degree Structure

• According to the 1991 Higher Education Law, “Higher education comprises higher academic education and higher professional education.” Different objectives were set for those branches.
• The law also provided for the replacement of integrated, five-year programs leading to a higher education diploma with a two-tier system with bachelor and master cycles. The subsequent Law on Higher Education Establishments (1995) further strengthened the bachelor-master structure in universities but failed to implement the same structure for professional qualifications. Amendments to the Law on Higher Education Establishments in 2000 allowed for the introduction of a two-tier system with bachelor and master cycles in professional education, allowing for further progression to doctoral studies.
• The current structure of higher education allows for academic bachelor programs (bakalaura diploms) of three to four years, which qualify students for one to two years of study at the master level. Bachelor degrees in professional disciplines are awarded after studies of at least four years in duration, and master degrees after no less than five years, including the bachelor phase. Successful students can then qualify for doctoral programs. The bachelor/master/doctorate cycles are, since 2000, applicable to both academic and professional programs. The 2000 amendments do not, however, include a provision abolishing the existing four- to six-year [240 – 360 European Credit Transfer System (ECTS) credits] integrated professional program that leads to a professional diploma, but not to doctoral studies. There will be a transition period during which the new professional bachelor and master programs will coexist with those professional programs leading to a diploma.
• The new master’s degrees are called magistra grads. The long programs in medicine and dentistry lead to arsta grads and zobarsta grads.
• The total duration of first and second cycle studies combined should not be less than five years (300 ECTS). This means that 3+2, 4+1 and 4+2 structures are legal and in existence. In addition, there are some examples of 3+3 structures at Riga Technical University and 5+2 law programs at the University of Latvia.
• Two more documents – “Academic Education Standard” and “Second-Level Higher Education Standard” – have been adopted to supplement the Law on Higher Education Establishments. These documents obscure the difference between academic and professional higher education and ensure employability of graduates at all levels.
• Further progression of the two-tier structure in Latvia foresees transfer from one sector of higher education to the other at every level. For example, successful completion of a professional bachelor program will provide eligibility for entry into both an academic and a professional master program. Long, one-tiered programs will be kept in areas where such programs are likely to be kept in a number of other European countries, e.g., medicine and dentistry.

3. Credit Transfer

• Latvian institutions of higher education have been using the national credit system since the passage of the Law of Higher Education Institutions in 1995. Similar to other Baltic states and some Nordic countries, the credit system is based on the definition of one credit point as a workload of one week of full-time studies, with 40 credits per year. Contact hours may not exceed 50 percent of the student workload.
• The use of the credit system is also an essential requirement for institutional accreditation. In 2002, Regulation No. 2 of the Cabinet of Ministers’ state standards of academic education established the length and volume of bachelor (120 to 160 credits) and master (80 credits) study programs.
• The Latvian credit system is easily compatible with ECTS credits – one Latvian credit is worth 1.5 ECTS credit points.
• In Latvia, credits have been used for accumulation from inception, and the duration of programs has been expressed in total number of credit points.
• Latvia has not introduced the ECTS grading scale. A comparability study between Latvian credits and ECTS credits was carried out in 2001, and simple software has been produced to compare the achievements of Latvian students graded on the 10-point scale to the ECTS system.
• During the last three years, 15 universities have implemented ECTS as a credit transfer and accumulation system in almost all study programs.

* Latvian ENIC/NARIC suggested ECTS grading scale equivalency

4. Mobility

• Staff and student mobility were stimulated in Latvia by the country’s entry into the European Union’s TEMPUS and SOCRATES programs, as well as through bilateral projects with several Western European and Nordic countries.
• Student and staff mobility has increased slowly during the years of the Bologna Process. The main hindrance to academic mobility has been funding.
• To meet Bologna mobility goals, 2 percent of students – 2,000 in Latvia – should complete a study period abroad each year. Currently, only 200 students do so through the SOCRATES program. Due to lack of funds, the study period is usually only three months in duration, compared to the standard six months. This shorter study period causes certain problems with credit transfer because it is difficult to express achievements in terms of credits for a period of half a semester when most courses in foreign institutions are planned on a semester timescale.
• Outgoing student mobility flow significantly exceeds that of incoming flow.
• The Latvian Academic Information Center, which oversees the Latvian ENIC/NARIC, assesses and recognizes foreign credentials. Issues concerning the recognition and credit for periods of study abroad are usually dealt with by the institution where the student completes their study program.

5. Quality Assurance

• The establishment of a higher education quality assurance system began in 1994 with the adoption of the Law on Higher Education Establishments. The law mandated a two-stage system of quality assurance in which both institutions and programs have to be officially accredited for a degree to have full state recognition.
• Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania collaborated on the principles of the quality assurance system, and the three countries agreed to have a common expert pool for use as external evaluators.
• Regulations for accreditation procedures stipulate that each evaluation team consists of at least three experts, of whom only one can be Latvian. In practice, most evaluation teams comprise one expert from Western Europe or North America, one from Estonia or Lithuania and one from Latvia.
• In the case of program evaluations, final decisions are made by the Commission for the Accreditation of Study Programs, and in the case of institutional accreditation final decisions are made by the Council of Higher Education. Institutional accreditations are valid for six years.
• After five years of evaluations, Latvia completed the first round of accreditations of all study programs in 2001. Information about the accreditation system and its results are disseminated through the European Network for Quality Assurance (ENQA).
• In January 2003, the Council of Higher Education established a working group to consider regulation amendments based on the results of the first round of accreditations.
• According to the results of the “Trends III” study, Latvian higher education institutions believe European cooperation in quality assurance should take place as a cooperation of national higher education quality agencies through ENQA rather than with the establishment of a European accreditation body.

6. Promotion of European Dimensions in Higher Education

• Through participation in the TEMPUS program, Latvian institutions are cooperating in joint curriculum development and establishing joint programs – the most important examples being cooperation among technical universities of the Baltic and Nordic countries, as well as cooperation among those region’s agricultural universities.
• In 2000, multilateral agreements were reached among Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia on the recognition of qualifications in the Baltic Education Space.
• This cooperation, however, has not yet resulted in the creation of joint degrees. Latvian authorities blame the gaps in national legislations. A recent ministry report suggests Latvia can facilitate true European joint degrees by identifying and revising its own laws.

References

• Survey on Master Degrees and Joint Degrees in Europe, Christian Tauch and Andrejs Rauhvargers, September 2002
• The State of Implementation of ECTS in Europe, European University Association, October 2002
• Diploma Supplement – State of Implementation, European Commission, June 2003
• Lisbon Convention Status Reports, Council of Europe, Aug. 29, 2003
• The Information Network on Education in Europe – Eurydice, European Union
• Report on the Reforms in Latvia’s Higher Education on the Way Towards European Higher Education Area, Andrejs Rauhvargers, 2003