State funding, planning helps universities manage winter

As the winter season approached with huge heating bills, Latvian universities decided that students would go at least partially remote to save on energy expenses. At the moment, the situation is not as bad as was anticipated, reports Latvian Radio (Ieva Puke) and Latvian Public Broadcasting.

In September 2022, University of Latvia Rector Indriis Muižnieks assumed that, in the worst case scenario, studies would stay remote until March. The forecasts have not come true. After the winter holidays, students will take exams in person, and the second semester of studies will take place, at least partly onsite. A hybrid model has also been created during the coldest winter months at Rga Technical University, which has scheduled lectures both on-site and remotely, but the exam session in January and practice sessions are only on-site.

The energy crisis for higher education has been addressed not only by careful planning of lesson schedules, but also by government support. On 6 December 2022, the government gave the green light to a proposal by the Ministry of Education and Science to compensate for half of the increase in energy prices in state-founded universities, scientific institutes and state capital companies in sport and education. More than €3 million (US$3.2) of contingency budget was earmarked for this purpose.
Full report on the Eng.lsm.lv site