Over the past eight years, the number of foreign students at Riga Technical University (RTU) has doubled, reaching 2763 or 18% of the total number of students of RTU. Stated RTU Deputy Rector for International Academic Cooperation and Studies, Professor Igors Tipans while presenting the opportunities offered by RTU to Latvian ambassadors.
I.Tipans acknowledged that the internationalisation of RTU was significantly promoted by the fact that the university started developing programmes in English in the early 1990s. Therefore, in addition to full-time or full degree foreign students, the number of foreign exchange students has increased significantly. However, it would be necessary to increase the number of foreign doctoral students.
The Deputy Rector presented the ambassadors with the essential facts regarding the activities of RTU, highlighting the highly developed study and research fields, major research projects, development plans of the student campus in Kipsala and other issues. He informed that RTU will prepare and send information on the essential performance indicators of RTU to all embassies of Latvia, as well as invite to actively cooperate in the promotion of export of Latvian education.
Higher education export is an important part of RTU activity, and higher education institutions in Latvia have to combine their forces in this endeavour. RTU actively and successfully cooperates with several Latvian embassies, and their contribution is essential in building relations with higher education institutions of the countries concerned. Embassies can also provide support to promote the study and research grants of the Government of the Republic of Latvia, to inform about study opportunities and promote them, as well as to support future students in the visa application process.
The heads of Latvia's diplomatic missions abroad and Latvian ambassadors residing in Riga visited RTU on December 18. During the visit, presentations were delivered by Igors Tipans, Deputy State Secretary of the Ministry of Economics of the Republic of Latvia Raimonds Aleksejenko and Executive Director of Business System Solutions of JSC «Latvia’s State Forests» Maris Kuzmins. Members of the visit included Andris Ozols, Director of Investment and Development Agency of Latvia, employees of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Latvia, as well as representatives of Latvia in international organisations. At the end of the visit, diplomats visited RTU Design Factory, where they were introduced to its activities.
