Universities in Latvia – from the Soviet to European Higher Education Area

Abstract

Te paper will describe the development of universities in Latvia from 1950’s to nowadays. Te highereducation system experienced changes along with the political transformations of the country. Latvia was incorporatedin the Soviet Union in 1940, regained its independence in 1991 and joined EU in 2004. Since 2012 Latvia is a fullyfledged participant of the European Higher Education Area. The paper will describe the transformations of universitiesin Latvia from the perspective of a cultural learning theory and transfer of knowledge defined by Gita Steiner-Khamsi. Itwill provide the reference to an external education model, its modification and metamorphosis into a local educationalmodel. Latvia as a small country and relatively new culture had found itself in the situation to learn from the culturalexperiences of countries that have longer experience of democracy and had to overtake the ideas of the education systemsfrom other countries and adopt them to the local needs.