Institutional funding will help Latvian universities to achieve their strategic goals. This was the dominant idea during the discussion of changes in funding for higher education institutions at the Saeima Subcommittee on Higher Education, Science and Human Capital's meeting at Riga Technical University (RTU) on 16 January. It is envisaged that RTU could launch a pilot project on institutional funding this year, which will enable it to reduce student drop-outs and increase the number of graduates in STEM (Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) fields.
When granting institutional funding to higher education institutions, the state will pay for the result, not the process as before, according to the new model for institutional funding of higher education institutions prepared by the Ministry of Education and Science. It includes new performance criteria based on labour market requirements.
The main objective of institutional funding is results and quality, so the performance of universities will be measured by the number of graduates, while universities will have the freedom to determine how they achieve this objective.
This vision of the Ministry of Education and Science is in line with RTU's strategic plans to promote STEM education, attract talented students interested in studying engineering and high technology, and increase the number of graduates specifically in STEM degree programmes. It is planned that RTU will be entrusted with testing the new funding model in action already this year through an institutional funding pilot project. At the meeting of the Sub-Committee, RTU management presented its vision for the implementation of the new model and the performance indicators to be achieved.
Over the next three years, RTU aims to reduce student drop-outs, increase the number of graduates, especially in STEM fields, increase the number of lifelong learning students, and increase project funding. This is part of what RTU needs to do to achieve its goal of becoming one of the world's top 500 universities.
To reduce drop-out rates and increase the number of graduates, RTU will pay special attention to first- and second-year students, as this is the stage with the highest drop-out rates. This is due to a number of reasons, but one of the most important is insufficient knowledge of science and natural sciences, which prevents the full study of engineering and high technologies. To address this, RTU is already helping schools to educate young people by organising extra-curricular activities and setting up a curiosity centre "Futurimo Riga", where primary and secondary school students learn the laws of physics and chemistry. In the future, RTU intends to put even more emphasis on STEM education, making it one of its priority areas. In addition, work with teachers is also underway, and these activities will only expand as RTU consolidates Liepāja University and Rēzekne Academy of Technologies, strengthening STEM education in the regions.
RTU has worked to attract talented students in the past, for example by establishing the RTU Engineering Secondary School almost ten years ago and by organising the Talent Programme for several years, which offers particularly talented RTU students the opportunity to acquire additional knowledge and skills. This work has yielded results. For example, Kārlis Bērziņš, a graduate of RTU Engineering Secondary School and a student of the RTU Talent Programme, together with his fellow students has created the first underwater drone designed specifically for the Baltic waters, which can carry out survey and search operations in Latvian climatic conditions, as well as obtain various types of data and information about the aquatic ecosystem in real time. The student also demonstrated the drone to the members of the Saeima when they had the opportunity to visit RTU laboratories and see the work of RTU scientists after the Commission meeting.
The participants visited the RTU Science and Innovation Centre, where conditions are created for students, entrepreneurs and scientists to create innovative products and develop science-intensive ideas. For example, the aforementioned underwater drone. Guests also had the opportunity to visit Mitutoyo's Geometric Metrology Laboratory, the most modern and best equipped in the Baltics, located at RTU's Faculty of Civil and Mechanical Engineering (FCME), where a wide range of measurements are taken and where cooperation with the Latvian bobsleigh and skeleton teams takes place to measure the geometry and hardness of sledge rails, helping athletes to better prepare for competitions.
The FCME 3D Concrete Printing Science Laboratory provided an insight into future construction technologies and materials for concrete structures, while the FCME Personal Protective Equipment Testing Laboratory offered a wide range of equipment for testing masks, respirators and filters, as well as special purpose clothing such as protective suits and workwear, as well as various textile materials.
Guests were also shown the 3D-measured "twin" of the Ķīpsala campus and RTU scientists' contribution to the three-dimensional scanning of cultural heritage sites in Ukraine in summer 2022, recording damage and providing data for planning the reinforcement and restoration of cultural monuments damaged in the war.
At the Fibre Optic Transmission Systems Laboratory of the Faculty of Computer Science, Information Technology and Energy, where microchip research is carried out, guests were introduced to the world records that RTU scientists have achieved in researching how data could be transmitted as quickly and reliably as possible with smaller devices, using less energy and less heat.
