Analytics, Education and Science, Latvia, Society

Similarly as in previous years, social sciences and humanities are dominating among the study programmes – they are chosen by 65.4% of students.  In academic year 2015/2016, enrolment to social sciences and humanities has dropped by 4.0%, whereas enrolment to exact sciences has grown by 9.5%.

In academic year 2015/2016, entrant number constituted 29.1 thousand – 0.2% less than in previous year. 62.7% of all 1st year students entered programmes of social sciences and humanities, while 26.9% – exact science programmes.  In comparison, in previous academic year, social sciences and humanities were chosen by 64.2% of entrants, and exact sciences – by 26.6%. Tuition of more than a half of enrolled students (58.6%) is non-subsidised (they study for personal means), but tuition of 41.4% of students is state and local government funded.

In 2015, higher education was acquired by 17.0 thousand students. 11.1 thousand or 65.4% of which were females.

Number of foreign students in higher education institutions of Latvia is growing every year. In academic year 2015/2016, there are 6.5 thousand foreign students in higher education institutions of Latvia – 12% more than in previous academic year. Number of foreign entrants has grown as well – by 17% (from 2.4 thousand in 2014/2015 to 2.8 thousand in 2015/2016).

Number of entrants to vocational education has declined

In school year 2015/2016, there are 27.4 thousand students studying in vocational education institutions of Latvia – 8.3% less than in previous school year. Chosen by 43.3% of vocational education institution students, science and engineering fields are the most popular.

10.9 thousand students entered vocational education institutions this year – 6.9% less than in school year 2014/2015. There were 18% entrants more in computing and 11% entrants more in agriculture specialities.

In 2015, 8.2 thousand students acquired secondary vocational education – a decrease of 7.2%, compared to 2014.

Key higher and vocational education indicators

More detailed statistics on vocational and higher education institutions will be available on 4 March 2016 in CSB database section Education.