On 26 April, President of Latvia Egils Levits enacted the amendments to the Law on Higher Education Institutions adopted by the Saeima on 8 April 2021. New provisions encourage greater use of the official European Union languages in study programmes offered by universities.
At the same time, President of Latvia has also sent a formal letter to minister for education and science and Saeima Education, Culture and Science Committee, which contains heavy criticism of the way the law was drafted, adopted and shaped from a regulatory point of view. ‘I have strong reservations about fast-tracking and last-minute decisions being made about the law governing our official language and higher education policy,’ says the President in his letter.
President urges Saeima and Ministry of Education and Science to use university reform as a platform for strengthening the positions of Latvian as the single official language in the field of education and science. He also provides specific recommendations as to what needs to be done immediately.
He expects that the new legal framework for higher education and science, which will soon be announced, will define precise measures for both ensuring development and flourishing of Latvian as the language of science, while also offering high standards and competitiveness in higher education. ‘It is unacceptable and improper to create contradiction between the quality of higher education, on the one hand, and the official language, on the other hand. On the contrary, higher education and science should strive to contribute to good and excellent quality of Latvian language as the official language of our country. Moreover, it should aspire to do so irrespective of the field of higher education or science,’ President emphasises.
President of Latvia calls upon the legislators to introduce laws that support the use of Latvian in higher education in a manner, which maximises the use of Latvian in all areas of social life and protects Latvia’s future perspectives.
Parliament should also use its mandate to regulate the extent of foreign languages in higher education and science, because such issues are of great public concern.
According to President Levits, legislators should create a legal framework that supports employment of foreign academics by Latvian universities willing to focus their university programmes and research around one of the official EU languages, encouraging also greater popularity of these study programmes among foreign students.
President of Latvia also reminded that legislators should find meaningful ways of regulating the use of the official language for science and research purposes. Official language should be the first research and publishing language, thus unleashing the full potential of Latvian in science. ‘The main objective here is to make sure Latvian is the language of science. That is how it has been and that is how it should be. We can maintain it only by making sure that research activities are conducted in Latvian,’ Egils Levits points out.
In addition, legislators should find ways to engage diaspora in higher education and science by eliminating the barriers and administrative requirements, which prevent qualified experts from applying to jobs in higher education and science.