The number of students in academic year 2024/25 has slightly increased

The latest Central Statistical Bureau data show that in the academic year 2024/25 tertiary education is acquired by 74.8 thousand students. Even though for the past 20 years the number of students had a downward trend, in this academic year, compared to the previous period, it has increased by 1.0 % (773 students). Also the number of mobile students¹ in Latvia has risen – 11 000 students, who mostly acquired their previous education outside the European Union (EU), chose to continue their studies in Latvia in the following programmes: social sciences, business, law, health and welfare as well as science. 

Enrolments are going up for the second year. In the academic year 2024/25, 29.2 thousand students entered Latvian higher education institutions, which is 1.0 % (286 students) more than in the previous academic year. Women make more than a half (58.8 %) of entrants. What’s interesting, the number of female entrants has increased by 4.0 % (695 students), but the number of male entrants reduced by 3.4 % (409 students).

Half of the students (55.4 %) entered programmes at bachelor’s level, 22.7 % at master’s level, 19.1 % entered first level higher professional education (college) programmes, and 2.7 % doctoral programmes. More than two thirds (74.5 %) of the entrants have chosen full-time studies and just 25.5 % part-time studies. Tuition fee of most students (57.2 %) was a private contribution and that of 42.8 % was subsidised from state or local government budget. Almost a half of the students paying for studies (47.8 %) entered social sciences, business and law programmes, while the state-subsidised students mainly chose health and welfare programmes (18.6 %) and engineering, manufacturing and construction (17.4 %).

In time period from 1 October 2023 until 30 September 2024 degree or qualification was acquired by 13.5 thousand students, which is 577 graduates (4.3 %) fewer than in the previous period. A third (33.9 % making up 4.6 thousand) obtained degree in social sciences, business and law and a fifth (19.9 % forming 2.7 thousand) in health and welfare. Science programmes were graduated by 1.4 thousand students (10.1 % of all graduates).

Men's interest in education programmes is increasing

In the academic year 2024/25 the largest rise in the number of entrants was observed in education (of 20.5 %) and services (19.9 %) programmes. In education field 87.4 % of the total number of entrants were women, however, compared to the previous academic year, the number of male entrants in this field has increased by 48.5 % (144 students). The most significant drop in the number of entrants was observed in engineering, manufacturing and construction (of 25.2 % comprising 894 students) and agriculture (by 7.2 % making up 30 students) fields of education. The largest drop in the number of male entrants was in engineering, manufacturing and construction field – 29.6 % (767 students) less.

The top ranking of the most popular fields of education has not changed significantly over the past decade: also in this academic year every third entrant chose social sciences, business and law (34.1 %) followed by health and welfare (17.3 %) and engineering, manufacturing and construction (12.1 %). In turn, agriculture (1.4 %) and humanities and arts (7.2 %) were the fields with the lowest enrolments.

*Services includes: hotel and catering, travel and tourism, sports and leisure, etc.; transport services; environmental protection services; civil security; military.

**Science includes life sciences (biology, biochemistry, excluding clinical and veterinary sciences), physical sciences, mathematics and statistics, computing.

More than a half of students are in bachelor’s level study programmes

More than a half of the students – 56.7 % (42.4 thousand) – currently study at bachelor’s level, 22.2 % (16.6 thousand) at master’s level, 16.8 % (12.5 thousand) at college, and 4.3 % (3.2 thousand) at doctoral level. Compared to the previous year, the number of entrants has increased in master’s (by 2.0 %) and bachelor’s (by 1.7 %) level programmes and reduced in college (by 2.1 %) and doctoral level programmes (by 1.0 %).

Over the past 5 years the number of students in college level programmes has a downward trend – from the academic year 2020/21 the number of students has dropped by 11.1 % (1 600 students). In turn, the number of students in doctoral level programmes has increased by 58.1 % (1 184 students), which is related to changes in the classification of education in Latvia.

In the academic year 2024/25 doctoral programmes are implemented by 17 higher education institutions. A half (52.0 %) of them participate in health and welfare programmes and one fifth (20.0 %) in social sciences, business and law.

In the last decade, health and welfare had the largest increase in the number of students

In the academic year 2024/25, similarly to the last decade, more than a half (58.8 %) of students were women. Over the past years the proportion of women and men in various fields of education has remained similar. The largest proportion of women is still observed in fields of education (92.5 % of the total number of students) and health and welfare (80.7 %). Even though, only 485 (1.6 %) of all male students study in fields of education, compared to the previous year, the number of men in these programmes has increased by 38.6 % (135 students).

The fields of education mainly chosen by men do not tend change as well. The largest proportion of male students is still registered in engineering, manufacturing and construction (72.7 %). A large proportion of men (71.2 % of the total number of students) is also registered in science.

Similarly as a decade ago, also at present every third student participates in social sciences, business and law programmes (33.7 % accounting for 25.2 thousand students). The second most popular group is health and welfare programmes with a fifth (19.3 % making up 14.5 thousand) of total number of students. What’s interesting, that over the past decade the largest drop in the number of students was observed in social sciences, business and law programmes – 10.4 thousand students, but the largest rise – in health and welfare programmes – 3.8 thousand students.

In seven higher education institutions less than 100 students

At the beginning of academic year 2024/25 there are 48 higher education institutions in Latvia, of which 26 are universities and 22 – colleges (at the beginning of academic year 2023/24 – 28 universities and 24 colleges). State higher education institutions and colleges have been chosen by majority of all students (77.4 %), while private educational institutions by 22.6 %. There are more than 10 thousand students in every of the three largest Latvian universities – University of Latvia, Riga Technical University (RTU) and Riga Stradiņš University (RSU), which comprises 54.0 % of the total number of students. The majority or 35 higher education institutions have fewer than thousand students and 7 institutions fewer than 100 students.

Women make more than a half (55.1 %) of academic staff

At the beginning of the academic year 2024/25, the total number of academic staff (at main job) elected in the Latvian higher education institutions comprised 4 884, which is slightly less than a year ago (4 895 in 2023). The majority of academic staff were lecturers (1 243 comprising 25.5 %), senior researchers and researchers (1 206 making up 24.7 %) and lecturers (1 069 totalling 21.9 %).

Women make slightly more than a half (55.1 %) of academic staff. By the elected post higher female prevalence is observed among 1 069 lecturers (64.8 % comprising 693 women), among 1 243 docents (56.7 % making up 705 women), 146 assistants (54.1 % forming 79 women) and 591 associated professors (54.0 % comprising 319 women). Meanwhile, a small male prevalence is observed among 629 professors (52.3 % making up 329 men) and the leading researchers and researchers (out of 1 206 researchers 50.3 % (607 men)).

A quarter of the academic staff (25.2 % making up 1 232 employees) are aged over 60 years, while 10.0 % are aged under 30 years.

There are 11 thousand mobile students in Latvia

In the academic year 2024/25, 3.9 thousand mobile students entered Latvian higher education institutions. The proportion of women among mobile students has risen by 5 percentage points – 35.3 % of entrants are women. Every third (30.5 % or 421 students) of all female entrants is from India.

Currently in Latvia there are 11 thousand mobile students, which is 6.1 % or 639 students more than a year ago. The figure is the highest one registered since 2019. More than a half (55.7 %) of all mobile students study in master’s degree programmes and 40.8 % – in bachelor’s degree programmes. More than a third (38.7 %) of the total number of mobile students are studying in social sciences, law and business programmes, which are followed by health and welfare (28.9 %) and science (14.1 %).

Majority of mobile students are men and from non-EU countries

More than two thirds of mobile students (72.9 %) have acquired their previous education outside the EU, and almost two thirds (60.3 %) of mobile students have acquired previous education in one of the following five countries – more than a fourth (27.9 %) of all mobile students have acquired previous education in India, which is followed by Uzbekistan (9.6 %), Sweden (9.0 %), Ukraine (7.0 %) and Germany (6.8 %).

Men (61.7 %) comprise majority among the total number of mobile students (women account for 38.3 %). More men than women come to study from countries outside the EU – Uzbekistan (85.7% of Uzbekistan students are men), India (75.4 %, respectively) and Ukraine (62.9 %). Meanwhile, women (62.5 %) mostly come from the EU countries: from Sweden (women account for 61.9 % among the total number of mobile students from Sweden), Germany (61.5 %) and Finland (72.4 %).

More than a half (52.1 %) of mobile students attend Rīga Stradiņš University (27.2 % accounting to 3 008 mobile students) and Riga Technical University (24.9 % making up 2 751). The majority of RTU mobile students (97.0 %) have acquired previous education outside the European Union (EU), and every third student (36.8 %) studies social science, business and law in RTU. For comparison, in RSU fourth fifths of students (76.0 %) acquired previous education in some of the EU countries and almost all (97.5 %) are studying in health and welfare programmes.

¹ Mobile students – persons who have received their previous education outside Latvia and are studying in Latvia with the aim of obtaining a certain level of higher education (degree or qualification).

Media requests:
Public Relations Section
E-mail: media@csp.gov.lv
Phone: +371 27880666

More information on data:
Annika Gēgermane
Senior expert of the Social Statistics Methodology Section
E-mail: Annika.Gegermane@csp.gov.lv
Phone: +371 67366687