Disparities of regional higher education institutions in Latvia

Abstract

The aim of the regional development is to promote and ensure balanced and sustainable development of the state. One of the approaches for ensuring equal development is related to the opportunities for acquiring tertiary education. The lack of diverse study programmes may cause risk of "brain drain" in-between the regions, as well as it may question the future sustainability of certain regions, thus causing negative long-term consequences for the regional development. Equal accessibility to higher education in the regions is an important preconditions for a balanced development of national economy. The analysis of data on the higher education institution enrolment, graduation and state funded study opportunities are analysed in order to determine the existing regional disparities between the statistical regions of Latvia and the higher education institutions (HEIs) within. The presented data show great disparities in terms of equal availability of graduates of certain fields of study among regions of which Vidzeme region stands out the with highest level of specialization among all RHEIs. The novelty of this study lies in the use of a study thematic fields based approach, thus further indicating the skills based disparities among the regions.