Saeima committee to propose amendments intended to fix situation with foreign academic staff

RIGA - The Saeima Education, Culture, and Science Committee plans to propose amendments to the Law on Higher Education Institutions in order to fix the situation with the foreign academic staff working in Latvia, the committee's chairwoman Ilze Vinkele (Unity) told BNS.

As the Council of Higher Education and the Latvian Rectors' Council have already pointed out, Latvia's current legislation regulating the hiring of foreign academic staff is very strict, obsolete and conservative, Vinkele said. The harsh regulation restricts higher education institutions' possibilities to improve their teaching quality and compete for the export of their services, which is necessary as the number of local students is quickly dropping.

"We have started work on amendments to the Law on Higher Education Institutions. This is the committee's initiative on which we have been working for five months, and it will make language requirements for foreign teaching staff more up-to-date. These amendments have been drafted in collaboration with representatives of higher education institutions," Vinekle said, adding that she was the initiator of the planned amendments, which have the support of the Saeima Education, Culture and Science Committee. Work on the draft amendments continued throughout the last summer.

Vinkele also predicted that the Education and Science Ministry might reject the amendments despite the problems identified in this sphere because the ministry's position is currently more conservative than the views of the Saeima committee. Still, the committee is determined to push ahead with its legislative proposals.

Vinekele indicated, however, that the amendments would not resolve the situation with the rector of Stockholm School of Economics in Riga (SSE Riga) because it will take some time for the new legislation to come into effect.

Education and Science Minister Karlis Sadurskis (Unity) wrote on social networks last night that Latvia's institutions of higher education should be able to hire the best and most professional academic staff and rectors. The minister promised to come up with proposals aimed at ensuring a legislative environment that would allow institutions of higher education to employ foreign academic staff.

Unity chairman Andris Piebalgs said on Twitter that next Monday, January 30, Sadurskis is expected to report at the party's board meeting on his plans concerning language proficiency requirements for rectors.

As reported, the Education and Science Ministry has already refused to approve Mel Kenny as rector of Riga Graduate School of Law (RGSL) and said it would not reappoint Anders Paalzow as SSE Riga rector because of their insufficient command of the Latvian language.

The Cabinet of Minister's regulations requires from university rectors high proficiency in the Latvian language. Until now the Education and Science Ministry had closed its eyes to the poor command of Latvian by the rectors of the two universities but recently it announced that this arrangement could not last forever and the schools had to be prepared for this.