The changes would affect the Liepāja University, Daugavpils University, and Rēzekne Academy of Technologies.
Liepāja University will be reorganized by adding it to one of the science universities (University of Latvia, Riga Stradiņš University, Riga Technical University, or Latvian University of Life Sciences and Technologies). Daugavpils University and Rēzekne Academy of Technologies could be merged into a new state university.
The government also supported categorizing state-run universities in four types:
- Science universities (University of Latvia, Riga Stradiņš University, Riga Technical University, or Latvian University of Life Sciences and Technologies);
- Art and Culture universities (Jāzeps Vītols Latvian Music Academy, the Latvian Academy of Culture, the Latvian Academy of Art);
- Applied Sciences universities ( Daugavpils University and Liepāja University);
- Applied Sciences university colleges (BA School of Business and Finance, Latvian Maritime Academy, National Defence Academy of Latvia, Latvian Academy of Sport Education, Rēzekne Academy of Technologies, Ventspils University of Applied Sciences, and Vidzeme University of Applied Sciences).
This shuffle in management is due to the higher education reform approved by Saeima earlier in the year. Each type of university will have to meet certain criteria, as reported at the time by LSM.
