Inga Šīna: more full-time lecturers needed to strengthen Latvia's higher education
Latvia needs to increase the share of full-time academic staff in higher education, argues Inga Šīna. She stresses that lecturers now act more as mentors and that their role is crucial for graduates and the country's future.
Inga Šīna points to a European Commission Eurydice report showing that Latvia is one of the few countries to set a concrete target – raising the share of full-time academic staff from 17.8% to 50% by 2027. In her view, this goal reflects the understanding that the quality of higher education depends not only on study programmes, content or technology, but also on the people working with students.
The role of a lecturer has changed significantly. Since students can find answers to almost any question within seconds, a lecturer is no longer just a transmitter of knowledge. Šīna argues that the key task is to help students find reliable sources, assess information critically and turn knowledge into practical skills. The lecturer increasingly acts as a mentor, creating intellectual challenges, encouraging discussion, offering feedback and even helping students commercialise their knowledge.
Professional identity is also important. Lecturers who also work in their field – businesspeople, lawyers, doctors, architects – can show students real situations from the workplace. Full-time academic staff, on the other hand, ensure continuity: they contribute to research, develop study programmes and work more closely with students outside the classroom.
Increasing the share of full-time lecturers would benefit everyone, Šīna writes. A lecturer who focuses on one university is more accessible to students and has more time for research, consultations and involving students in scholarly work. It also fosters a stronger academic community.
Latvia faces challenges in this area, she notes, because there are many higher education institutions and similar programmes, and many lecturers work at several universities at once. Data from the Central Statistical Bureau show that about a quarter of academic staff are older than 60, which makes the question of attracting a new academic generation increasingly urgent.
Šīna also stresses the need for lecturers' continuous professional development and adequate university support. Motivation is not based on salary alone; internal motivation – interest in the field, room to grow and seeing students become professionals – matters just as much. The future of Latvia's graduates, she concludes, largely depends on the lecturers.
